Entrepreneurship for Hackers and Noobs - comment page 1
Compete Don’t Innovate Innovation isn’t the only way to get rich, competition works just as well and you don’t get the R&D cost. Chinese manufacturing firms know this well, it’s why they sell widget X for such a lower price … Continue reading
This entry was posted in startups and tagged capitalism, entrepreneurs, hacker news, Pain Points, startup marketing. Bookmark the permalink.
Leave a Reply
Custom Search
Solid advice for a startup maybe but innovation is still key in many fields. Medical is an obvious example. And what about patents? There’s clearly more money in innovation.
It’s of course preference, but I’d rather compete than innovate. More interesting day to day decisions, less work, less uncertainty, potentially big profits if you do it right.
It’s like standing back for the subway doors to open rather than picking a position before the train arrives. You get to pick the ripest berries when you choose to.
And let’s not underestimate the weight of uncertainty as any startup founder will tell you about. Compete and you get get to sleep at night knowing if you pull it off you get a juicy check rather than pull it off and still end up with nothing. Little to no stress.
I’d also add it’s not just R&D that’s done for you, its’s also customer training and marketing. You can figure out where the competition is getting customers and traffic and just copy that too.