Beaten to the punch by a competitor, advice?
13ren: Competition also validates the market in that some won't buy unless there is more than one supplier; the first doesn't always win (Edison had the 19th light bulb patent); and your greatest competitor is non-consumption (not this competitor).There's one danger in learning from them: don't become fixated or intimidated. What you have to offer is your passion for that "fresh take", which is still your original idea, and is still real, and is still needed by people.It will turn out that your "fresh take" is not identical with theirs - non-identical features, non-identical audience. It could be that yours is better.Marketing is important - if you are "far from" being an expert, one way to gain experience is to have a go.I want to encourage you, but courage is only needed because of the unknown. A start-up is high-risk, with many risks and many ways to die. A competitor is just one of them. But fortunately, the plurality of risks doesn't really matter, as you can only die once.