Re:Ask HN: Do you worry about copycats when building a project?
by kugelblitz on Monday February 10, 2020 @06:36AM
(#22288230)
I try build something niche-y and cool and then automate it as much as possible. And: Price point is not usually the main selling point.
Because then: It's usually not big enough to be interesting for copycats, and with the higher price I avoid the "bargain-hunters" (in my experience these are the ones who will be the most time-suck with their communication and feature requests, etc) and have a decent enough margin to re-invest.
With a small target group, it's easier to talk to potential clients, they most likely have similar problems. E.g. if I build something like Trello, I will get wildly different answers when I talk to a CTO and when when I talk to junior devs.
I can always expand the target group, but I'll think about that later.
Because then: It's usually not big enough to be interesting for copycats, and with the higher price I avoid the "bargain-hunters" (in my experience these are the ones who will be the most time-suck with their communication and feature requests, etc) and have a decent enough margin to re-invest.
With a small target group, it's easier to talk to potential clients, they most likely have similar problems. E.g. if I build something like Trello, I will get wildly different answers when I talk to a CTO and when when I talk to junior devs.
I can always expand the target group, but I'll think about that later.