i will not promote - Big Competitor takes over

Over the past 2 months, I was working on building a startup, the MVP was a week away and suddenly enters Google with literally the same thing. Like every single feature I had in the MVP that I thought was unique and useful to the user, Google's releast had it. This was one of the first ideas where I had 100% conviction and I think it's a lot of validation that Google built something I was thinking about. Maybe my problem identification and solution are on the right track. I have 6+ years of experience in the startup space, working at 4+ startups backed by YC and a16z. I was hell bent on an idea and now I want to help someone who already has one. Let me know if you're building something, would love to help.

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u/[deleted] 1 1 day ago

[removed] — already gone when the archive first saw it
u/BestEmu2171 1 1 day ago

Would you be interested in a software-augmented, mobility hardware project?
u/AlexeyAnshakov 1 1 day ago

Google launching your feature set is the best proof that the problem is real, but big tech almost always builds generic horizontal tools that leave specific workflows wide open. Their product will cater to the lowest common denominator, ignore messy edge cases, and come with zero high-touch support. Instead of abandoning the build, narrow down to a single painful vertical where enterprise buyers refuse to touch generic Google tools due to compliance or custom integrations. A startup does not win against Google by having more features, it wins by solving the full end-to-end workflow for an unsexy niche that is too small for Google to care about. Niche down into deep operational execution and you can easily take the high-margin customers.
u/Crafty_Progress_5950 1 1 day ago

Ouch, two months in and Google ships it a week before your MVP. But that's validation of the problem, not of the business, the generic version of this is dead and nobody pays for a slightly better clone of a free thing. Go where Google won't follow: on-prem or air-gapped installs, regulated sectors, the ugly internal workflows they'll never bother productizing. And if you'd rather help someone else, pick one project and stay on it for a year instead of shopping yourself around.
u/LeatherWrecker OP 1 1 day ago

Thank you for the advice and that’s exactly what I am working on figuring out. Around helping someone, provided I do not continue with the idea I’m working on, I’m looking to become a co-founder. Having worked on startups at every scale my entire career, I know for sure that it’s time to start my own.