on competition
You only compete with one thing
I love this re-framing of competition by Jason Fried: “When it comes to business, I've always preferred the term "alternative" to "competitor" when addressing other options in the market.”
I think the first point of treating competitors with an ordinary mind is to see competition as the norm. Don't try to escape the competition, it's a good thing. I don't even think that competition should be ended by doing M&A. We see a lot of companies that eliminate their rivals through M&A becoming complacent and end up slacking off.
Zhang Yiming • Zhang Yiming’s Last Speech: Part II
Mike Krieger (founder of Instagram) when Lenny asks him how he thinks about Claude vs. ChatGPT:
“Look yourself in the mirror and embrace who you are and what you could be rather than like who others are is maybe the, the way I've been looking you at it”
Mike when Lenny asks him what is still helpful for product teams to do now that we have AI:
“One
Caroline Cala Donofrio • The Best Advice I've Ever Heard
Naval Ravikant • The Internet Has Massively Broadened Career Possibilities
Brian at Reforge says: One of my strong beliefs is that startups should rarely think about competitors and most should think about alternatives. Alternatives are the other ways your target audience are solving the problem today. If you focus on competitors, you are likely to make three critical mistakes: 1. You Will Lack Differentiation - When
... See moreBefriending the Goon Squad · Applied Cartography
“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
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