If you want to be successful today, you can’t ignore the competitor’s position. Nor can you walk away from your own. In the immortal words of Joan Didion, “Play it as it lays.”
Jack Trout • Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Optimizing on building your network before having a rare & valuable skill/knowledge base is like focusing on growth before product-market fit. Nail the product first.
Substack • See your Career as a Product
“At both Viaweb and YC, every minute I spent thinking about competitors was, in retrospect, a minute wasted... It's exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors — so rare that you can almost discount the possibility... Inexperienced founders usually give competitors more credit than they deserve. Whether you succeed depends far more
... See moreYou need to create a position that highlights the unique strengths of your product as customers perceive them. To do that, you need to understand who your real competitors are in the minds of customers.
April Dunford • Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
Err on the side of doing things where you'll face competitors. Inexperienced founders usually give competitors more credit than they deserve. Whether you succeed depends far more on you than on your competitors. So better a good idea with competitors than a bad one without.