[shawnreilly]

I've been in this exact situation and my advice is to keep going. Either keep building your product and compete with them, or contact them and attempt to merge. But don't give up just because someone else launched first. Only rarely (usually when the Product involves a 'Network Effect') does the order of who launches first matter. Usually, it does not matter who launched first, and the customers just want the best value for the price. The fact that someone else made something similar validates that the pain point you're solving (or capability you're providing) has value. Going further, the fact that they have been able to acquire customers so fast validates that there is a want / need / desire for the product, which is some great customer validation. So in this sense, you can just think of your competition as providing an additional set of customer validation data that you can use in conjunction with your own customer validation data. Theoretically, this should give you an upper hand (although I would say this is debatable). All things equal, even if the App's were exactly the same, the team that hustles the most, identifies with the customer the best, and implements the most effective strategies (be it Marketing or Business Monetization or whatever) will usually come out on top. So if there ever was a 'Go Time' this is it!

Another thing to note; You may want to strongly consider if you have any valuable IP (Intellectual property) related to this Product. The change to "First to File" earlier this year relates to this exact situation you're in (two inventors release a new product at the same time). As the name implies, the First to File for a Patent has precedence. Good Luck!