Found a smart competitor with a 3y headstart. What to do?
zaidf: First, you have to decide if you want to compete with them head on. This means beyond just having a similar product. It means going after the same customers and same everything.If you do go that route, you should make use of the upsides. One upside is, you can reduce your risk by emulating their proven product design/market strategy. Steve Blank has a post on how he was able to get sooo much out of his competitor's catalog/specs.Simply put, if there is a company with a product and lots of customers and you want to compete with it, you don't have to reinvent the wheel if you can emulate individual components of the competitor.Now that you are close to even with them on product/marketing, you can find an area where you will be better than them. Pricing is weak. May be you can offer an added service. May be you can make some component more efficient and highlight the fact that you are more efficient than that competitor.Competition can be real good if you know how to use your (successful) competition as free R&D.