News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature?

Should I start a startup that could potentially be killed by a big corp if they implement the feature that my product is built on? Its a product based on a strong community around it, which is a plus, but still very risky.
( 8 comments | 6 points | on HN )
Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by allenleein on Sunday February 03, 2019 @10:30AM (#19070065)
I think big corp rarely killed a startup.

Some quotes from famous startup people:

“In a big company, you can do what all the other big companies are doing. But a startup can’t do what all the other startups do. I don’t think a lot of people realize this, even in startups. The average big company grows at about ten percent a year.

So if you’re running a big company and you do everything the way the average big company does it, you can expect to do as well as the average big company — that is, to grow about ten percent a year. The same thing will happen if you’re running a startup, of course. If you do everything the way the average startup does it, you should expect average performance.

The problem here is, average performance means that you’ll go out of business.”- Paul Graham

---

"What makes disruption so devastating is the fact that, absent a crisis, it is almost impossible to avoid. Managers are paid to leverage their advantages, not destroy them; to increase margins, not obliterate them." - Naval Ravikant

---

Personally, I think if your business fits in a market design by someone else, you are “default dead”. Pepsi never catches Coke. Bing never catches Google. Google Pixel never catches iPhone. The real question is can you design a market that you can dominate. Ignore competition from big corp.

Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by tinktank on Saturday February 02, 2019 @03:45AM (#19061938)
Jobs told the dropbox guys that their product was a feature... go figure.
Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by saluki on Saturday February 02, 2019 @10:20PM (#19067609)
Most startups could be killed with a single feature initially.

If you're interested in working on it and have passion about it go for it.

Most big corps have lots of layers/decision makers so chances are slim they would attack your feature before you have traction, users and a community built around it.

Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by ishjoh on Friday February 01, 2019 @06:46PM (#19059888)
is there an additional thing that would make people stick around even if that other company built the feature?

Seeing a feature that can make a big difference to people is a great place to start, if you can plan a road map that will help you to grow your user base, is even better.

Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by quotz on Friday February 01, 2019 @10:34PM (#19060855)
So it lets people earn for a living from the platform, and the product is also build on a community, very different from the big corp competitor
Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by jxr006 on Friday February 01, 2019 @09:26PM (#19060622)
i'm going to quote Sam.

This doesn't sound like a business, sounds like a feature.

Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by celticninja on Friday February 01, 2019 @06:41AM (#19053335)
How much would it cost to launch? How fast could you recoup your investment?
Re:Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? by quotz on Friday February 01, 2019 @06:42AM (#19053343)
Not much at all. Could probably build the MVP in 2 months. But it could take a few years to build a community around it.