Ask HN: How to differentiate my business from a competitor with crazy momentum?
6 by anonfounder747 | 9 comments on Hacker News.
I'm a solo developer with an identical product to a well-funded competitor ABC (has crazy momentum). The competitor is well-loved and widely recognized in the market. When I describe my startup to anyone they ask "how is this different from ABC?". Being solo and the startup being my main occupation and ambitions to scale, it is very discouraging to hear time and again that what I've built is similar in most important aspects to ABC. I have paying users, but operate at probably 1/1000th the scale of ABC. I would work on narrowing my target audience and building for them, but results are not guaranteed. At this point I would like some certainty that my efforts will pay off, but honestly, I don't think I can expect that. I'm pretty frustrated with the risk I've taken on so far and the years of effort I've put into it, only to end up a clone. That said, I think this situation is probably familiar to those new calendar-booking apps, email apps, etc. They've found a way to stand out despite the presence of calendly, gmail, etc. I take inspiration from them and will carry on trying to find differentiation. My question goes out to anyone familiar with this situation: how do you change your product strategy to be successful despite an 800-lb gorilla in your market? Regardless of my question, if you have words of motivation or general advice, please share that too. I could use some positive energy from the universe today.