[relaunched]

Just do what you do and be better. If you didn't see eye to eye, you'll probably end up with 2 different products.

It could be worse. I applied to a well an incubator/investor type program and made it to the final screen...only to find out several months later, the program founders launched a very similar idea with a very similar customer acquisition strategy, involving the same company we were in talks to partner with. I'm not explicitly saying the idea was stolen from us, but common courtesy would be to not pick our brain and let us know about the conflict up front. Needless to say, we weren't selected.

Needless to say, our strategy back then was a loser. Today, our products have more similarities than differences, but we've diverged enough b/c we've both had to pivot and were drawn in different directions.

Just rock what you have out of the park. Most ideas aren't right out of the gate.