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The philosophy of "why build something, because company x, with infinite money, will just build it better" I think is a flawed one.
>The philosophy of "why build something, because company x, with infinite money, will just build it better" I think is a flawed one.
Fascinating quote, but do you think you can articulate why it is flawed? Was it something your investors asked you?
I think the hardest question to answer for a lot of startups is "what happens if [company X with infinite money] decides to copy you"?
My first instinct might be to say I'm one of the top ten or twenty people in the world who are capable of writing the code for my product (however arrogant that might sound), but even if that's true, that still leaves nine or so others that Infinite Money Company could recruit to compete.
Is truly the only good answer being the very absolute best in the field, or are there other good answers?
I think there is a very real danger of competition eating your lunch, but you can't let it frighten you too much, or let it stop you from executing on a good idea. It has been my experience that large companies sometimes lose their ability to rapidly iterate on a product. Maybe it's not even in their best interests -- if you have a killer product like Gmail, there's not a strong motivation to stray too far from the course. It leaves room for companies to take those risks, and find out where there is room for innovation.
The philosophy of "why build something, because company x, with infinite money, will just build it better" I think is a flawed one.