Ask HN: What did you do when your app/side-project was beaten to market?

[throwaway32424]

This has happened to me twice now and again recently. I worked on an app for around a year that I found a niche in and then a competitor came out of nowhere with more features, more marketing and a huge team with a very similar app just before I launched.

For the situation right now, the only options I'm seeing is focusing on being cheaper or trying to tune the UX to a specific target market. Both options don't sound great. I'm worried about launching, being dismissed for not having a strong enough product and then having to just walk away after so much work. I don't like the idea of abandoning customers that bought the app either.

Has anything similar happened to you? How did you change your plans when a strong competitor turned up? How did it work out? When do you decide to walk away?

[helen842000]

It doesn't matter. Right now your entire potential customer base doesn't know that either of you exist. Just start talking to actual people and get your product out there.

Finding customers and making them happy is the only thing that matters.

If your competition have huge team they also have huge expenses, you have an advantage in that you probably have a longer runway than they do.

Even if you had launched first, what would you have done if this competitor came along and launched after you? Doesn't competition validate it being a good idea? Why does being first matter if it's a viable niche?

If you have been working on this for a year, you should already have people ready to be your customers. If you don't, then stop building and start shipping.

[throwaway32424]

Thanks for the advice. Really helps.

So I have some potential customers who like it. Some prefer the competitor because it has more features but think that product is too expensive. All I can think of right now is focus on a core set of features a target group would need and charge less. I'm worried my competitor would just release a cut down cheaper version later but then I guess anyone else could do that as well. Any advice?

Affinity Designer and Illustrator before exist I suppose. Maybe I have to focus on specific workflows and cost.

[helen842000]

I would recommend not to compete on price.

By all means position yourself as more affordable but if you go specifically after cheap customers there is no loyalty there. They will always switch to whoever is cheapest and are a nightmare to support.

It's better to have a cut down feature-set, make sure you price based on that value and being simpler than the competitor.

There is room for you both in the industry. Focus on the right subset of customers and the core features that are right for them.

[karlhughes]

Competition is a good thing. It means there's a market, and your competition is a great template for pricing and marketing efforts.

Unless that competition is Google. In that case, maybe just hope they discontinue the idea?

[segmondy]

What did you do the previous 2 times?

[PaulHoule]

More details would help.

[throwaway32424]

Not looking for specific advice right now but just hearing about people who went through a similar thing, what happened and what they changed for their next attempt. It's hard to give specific details without identifying yourself and competitors as well.