COMMENTS
Man, you are right Dharmesh. This is exactly my feeling about problems I like to work on. Besides, I believe that competition is really an attribute of success. The greatest danger to a startup is not competition, but obscurity.
(Which I know is the problem that HubSpot is designed to solve :)
Thanks!
-Stas Antons
SmartSymbols Visual Platform
Competitors keep you honest and without them there is probably not a market worth pursuing. So healthy ones are good to have around.
I kind of agree that if the problem you are working on gets solved, then you should be happy about that but I would rather solve it and reap the rewards.
Big problems have many solutions and if a competitors comes up with a better one than me, then it will just drive me to do better.
This article is truly inspiring. What you are saying so true, by trying to solve bigger problems not only give excitement but high satisfaction, which motivates us to really achieve the goal or wish the best to our competition to do their best as well.
This article is truly inspiring. What you are saying is so true, by trying to solve bigger problems not only gives excitement but high satisfaction, which motivates us to really achieve the goal or wish the best to our competition to do their best as well.
how un-american ... and what will journalists do, who view everything as a win/lose contest?
you are asking for maturity, wisdom, smarts? where will those be found?
lol
Actually, there is another reason, a far more simpler reason, for any business to wish its competitor well.
For a moment imagine your business had no competitor. What would that mean? It would mean you are operating in a monopoly market, which in itself is hugely disadvantageous. Let me state three reasons why it is disadvantageous.
One, the customer will be suspicious that she has nothing to benchmark your quality and pricing against.
Two, in a monopolistic situation, you yourself will inevitably become complacent and slip up on many fronts including innovation and quality control.
And, three, the government of the day will be after you hammer and tong with 'Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act' or some similar Act that might be operative in your country. (Remember, Microsoft felt the heat of this earlier).
So it is always better to wish your competitor well. More than that: it is common for similar businesses to get together and form Associations to protect and project themselves.
In fact, I would stick my neck out and say that competition is essential for a business to thrive.
Actually, there is another reason, a far more simpler reason, for any business to wish its competitor well.
For a moment imagine your business had no competitor. What would that mean? It would mean you are operating in a monopoly market, which in itself is hugely disadvantageous. Let me state three reasons why it is disadvantageous.
One, the customer will be suspicious that she has nothing to benchmark your quality and pricing against.
Two, in a monopolistic situation, you yourself will inevitably become complacent and slip up on many fronts including innovation and quality control.
And, three, the government of the day will be after you hammer and tong with 'Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act' or some similar Act that might be operative in your country. (Remember, Microsoft felt the heat of this earlier).
So it is always better to wish your competitor well. More than that: it is common for similar businesses to get together and form Associations to protect and project themselves.
In fact, I would stick my neck out and say that competition is essential for a business to thrive.
(NOTE: Sorry, last two times I tried posting this comment, I got system error messages. So I am trying to post this one last and final time. If the previous two attempts have also been posted, notwithstanding the error messages, please ignore/delete those two).
Actually, there is another reason, a far simpler reason, for any business to wish its competitor well.
For a moment imagine your business had no competitor. What would that mean? It would mean you are operating in a monopoly market. This in itself is not an advantage, but a huge disadvantageous. Let me state three reasons why it is a disadvantage.
One, the customer will be suspicious that she has nothing to benchmark your quality and pricing against.
Two, in a monopolistic situation, you yourself will inevitably become complacent and slip up on many fronts including innovation and quality control.
And, three, the government of the day will be after you hammer and tong with 'Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act' or some similar Act that might be operative in your country.
So it is always better to wish your competitor well. More than that: it is common for similar businesses to get together and form Associations to protect and project themselves.
In fact, I would stick my neck out and say that competition is essential for a business to thrive.
I agree with this wholeheartedly.
I would also like to add something that I've observed recently among some people I've met working on various startups. It seems that people are now naturally or instinctively (even if unintentionally) thinking in terms of whole systems/ecosytems as far as the big problems they are trying to solve. With this type of big problem, often there is no way that one entrepreneur or company can solve the problem, whether they think small or big. Instead, it seems that for the problem to be solved, it would require an emergence of a number of different companies and perhaps other organizations working in concert.
This is just an overall feeling I've gotten by listening to a fairly large number of different pitches over the past year or so and observing certain trends. And I might add that this isn't just inexperienced entrepreneurs trying to "boil the ocean" without a clear addressable market and opportunity. It seems equally prevalent among seasoned entrepreneurs with major successes under their belt.
While my focus has been on the financial system, here are a couple of examples of ideas/visions/"big problems" related to multiple interacting "systems":
http://www.solarroadways.com
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/05/the-grid-our-cars-and-the-internet-one-idea-to-link-them-all/
Loved this one "What really frustrates us entrepreneurs is when competitors win, but they don’t actually solve the problem."
We see it happening often. Someone beats you purely because he has 100 times more marketing budget and quickly gets the consumer's mindshare. Then it becomes even tougher and more fun!
We find, and coach our clients:
- Any market is way to big, dynamic for one firm. Look at how Microsoft struggles.
- Pioneering new markets is orders of magnitudes harder and usually fails.
- Your competitor will understand your business way better than anyone else, especially clients.
In our decades of marketing work we have never met two competing firms that really want, or make money, on the exact same kinds of clients. Remember: rejection is protection. If a part of the market/prospect wants your competitor and not you - they are doing you a favor.
How often have we all focused on the deal rather than a fit?
We are also increasingly focused on granularity in our work and all of the above is even more true.
We find, and coach our clients:
- Any market is way to big, dynamic for one firm. Look at how Microsoft struggles.
- Pioneering new markets is orders of magnitudes harder and usually fails.
- Your competitor will understand your business way better than anyone else, especially clients.
In our decades of marketing work we have never met two competing firms that really want, or make money, on the exact same kinds of clients. Remember: rejection is protection. If a part of the market/prospect wants your competitor and not you - they are doing you a favor.
How often have we all focused on the deal rather than a fit?
We are also increasingly focused on granularity in our work and all of the above is even more true.
Business aside, sometimes - you need to appreciate when your competition does well. Being "nice" sometimes goes a long way!
Great take.
Business aside, sometimes - you need to appreciate when your competition does well. Being "nice" sometimes goes a long way!
Great take.
Business aside, sometimes - you need to appreciate when your competition does well. Being "nice" sometimes goes a long way!
Great take.
Business aside - sometimes, one needs to appreciate when the competition does well or achieves something significant. Being mr "nice" aint a bad mentality to have!
Great article yet again!
Our competitor’s success and greatness could give us an incentive to work harder and improve our performance.
Competition is a great spur to continuous improvement. You don't just want to beat the competition, you want to do it better.
Collaboration between competitors is also extremely valuable, as long as it doesn't result in the creation of an effective monopoly.
Perhaps I can be the first to disagree a little.
I concur with all the previous remarks - competition is good and necessary, but the idea that as founders we care more about the problem being solved than we do about building a successful building solving the problem presupposes that it doesn't really matter too much personally if we fail (as long as someone else succeeds).
This might be true for a number of (maybe second-time) entrepreneurs, but I don't think it is universally true. It matters
a lot to me (and my family) whether I make a success of solving the problem I set out to solve - I can't afford (financially or emotionally) to be always jumping to work on
the next thing because someone else got there first.
Perhaps some would argue that I should go and find something more meaningful to work on, but I would argue that not everyone has the luxury to work on those kind of problems.
Perhaps I am missing the point here, but I thought it worth putting forward a counter-argument - I'd be pleased to be re-directed if I'm missing something important here.
I somehow don't really agree with the article. It takes too much of a high ground. Competition has its own set of advantages/disadvantages. But the main point I see here is, its not that most of us:
1) Identify a problem first
2) Then try & find a solution
Instead we come up with a product & then put to our customers how it help them (read problem solving).
Moreover the mention of your new start-up & a brief visit to the website & case studies just tells me of it being another Internet Marketing Company with which due respect is selling its product/services but I doubt the founders started with it because their existed problems with no other similar solutions in the IM space.
Conclusion: The correct order
1) I have a product/service to sell.
2) Lets now figure out which problem it addresses.
P.S. This is my first visit/post to the blog & would apologize for my critical view-point on the article.
Re: "When possible, work on really big problems. They’re more fun, and it’s easier to get excited. But, even if you’re not working on a really big problem, it’s OK, as long as you at least care enough about the problem you are solving that you don’t care who solves it. You just want it solved."
I see your point here. I think my challenge is that often times I care so much that I always want to be the one to solve the problem.
Right now I'm focusing on prioritizing my time and my efforts on the work (tasks) that I enjoy the most. Currently, that's speaking and coaching with a handful of clients. It's when I try to conquer the world that I run into problems.
I kinda disagree with the entire premise of this posting. The problem is with the premise that a business solution can be "solved"....that's just much too simplistic. Name me one business solution that's solved, and i'll tell you how you can do it better. HubSpot isn't "solving" internet marketing...it may be advancing the field and better than the competition, but it will never "solve" the problem. So, wishing your competitors well for this reason makes no sense.
Instead, forget about what the competition is doing and focus on your own innovation and your own product. It will never be done, only improved...keep trying to improve it every day.
Re the last comment - Michael, in answer to your question, I suspect there are plenty of examples, but here are a few - Internet search: Google; desktop operating systems: Microsoft; portable music: Apple. The point is that it is next to impossible to compete with these guys because their solution is a) so much better than what went before and b) a good enough answer to people's needs, that the marginal cost/benefit of switching makes no sense to go elsewhere. Of course, there will always be a market for niche players that yields okay (though not massive) revenue, but as far as the market is concerned, those specific problems are already solved.
In the case of Hubspot, they are genuinely doing something new and naturally want to take the high ground, but it seems that Dharmesh is so passionate about the problem space that he doesn't mind if someone else gets there first.
(Dharmesh - what must your investors be thinking...?)
Steve...you've made my point. Google built a better search engine than what existed before...but should entrepreneurs say "Ok, problem solved, onto the next one." ? That would have stopped any innovation in the space such as wolfram alpha or Bing. A couple kids out there might think they can solve Search better...I'd encourage them to do it if they really felt it could be improved (Which it can). Same with The Desktop OS, should developers at Google or Apple throw in the towel because Microsoft has "solved" the OS problem??
The answer is obviously no, because technology changes constantly, and the problem is never just "Solved"....only improved.
If your competitor solves a *specific* problem you were looking to solve yourself, accept it, build that into your own solution and start innovating on top of that. But that's no reason to outwardly be hoping or wishing they did it first. Someone will solve it...and if your an entrepreneur, you should want to do it first.
Good point, but so hard to embody...
Bad competitor are the ones that really get on my nerves. When someone "solves it" with a crappy solution, and every starts praising them and talking about it... that's when I feel the world is not such a perfect place after all :)
This is known that money can make us disembarrass. But what to do if someone has no money? The one way is to try to get the
credit loans and just term loan.
I think you make a really good point here, Dharmesh. By truly caring about solving a problem, you don't really have a "hidden agenda" in creating a solution. I also agree with Mr. Ozzello when a crappy solution is praised ... although that can also be an impetus to create a better solution. :-)
Here is UCLA working paper, supporting your feelings: "Seeking an Aggressive Competitor: How Product Line Expansion Can Increase All Firms’ Profits"
Our Twitter post with pdf link: http://twitter.com/richandcom/status/10129321946
How intuitively brilliant! It's nice to see that there are still those out there who think great in this "it's all about me world." While I can imagine (to the best of my limited capabilities) how satisfying it could be to "win", the journey is so much more enriching and rewarding. It's whom you reach out to, the relationships you establish, lives you touch, and what you learn along the way (good and not so good, and both about ourselves and others) toward this "success" that make the difference. So, the key is all in the attitude, perspective, and approach. Even those who "fail" can find victory, sometimes more so because failure humbles. And, humility connects us. This is when self-actualization is given a chance to begin. Only by attaining this level of development and achievement are we able to reach our highest potentiality working together as one...toward the goal of common good..... for all humanity, which is the way it should be... As such, leaders lead by example and service. Thank you for doing just that and struggling through those long nights to find the "answer". You have truly spoken to and from the heart. May God bless you always.
I have to agree with you on this, competition does have its own good and bad points but you are right to say that when someone else comes up with a solution, we immediately start seething instead of learning from it and then getting back to your drawing board with full force.