Comments on: Competition makes me happy http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996 Jessica Mah is a senior at UC Berkeley. While she's not pulling all-nighters to finish her computer science projects, she works on indinero.com Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:14:47 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Ibrahim | ZenCollegeLife.com http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7527 Ibrahim | ZenCollegeLife.com Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:39:03 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7527 Competition is the only reason I get up in the morning. If I'm in a class where nobody is making an A, I have a hard time making one. But if I'm in a class with gunners, you bet your ass I'm sitting in the front of the class trying to earn that 100! Competition is the only reason I get up in the morning. If I’m in a class where nobody is making an A, I have a hard time making one. But if I’m in a class with gunners, you bet your ass I’m sitting in the front of the class trying to earn that 100!

]]> By: Yu-kai Chou http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7516 Yu-kai Chou Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:35:34 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7516 Great insights! Competition only come in place when Marketshare is a big issue, which doesn't apply to 99% of startups. Startups should focus on surviving, making it, and turning profitable before they can worry about anything else. I have heard of very few startups that failed because a customer knows about BOTH them and their competitor and picked their competitors. I still meet people who don't know what Gmail or Skype is. Even Google and Skype can't reach everyone in all those years, your competitors will not too. So focus on the customer and creating value for them. Love your blog! Great insights! Competition only come in place when Marketshare is a big issue, which doesn’t apply to 99% of startups. Startups should focus on surviving, making it, and turning profitable before they can worry about anything else. I have heard of very few startups that failed because a customer knows about BOTH them and their competitor and picked their competitors. I still meet people who don’t know what Gmail or Skype is. Even Google and Skype can’t reach everyone in all those years, your competitors will not too. So focus on the customer and creating value for them.

Love your blog!

]]> By: hypotheek met koopsubsidie http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7477 hypotheek met koopsubsidie Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:52:03 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7477 This is a very long way to say: "the person behind the company makes the company" I disagree when it comes to internet marketing. In internet marketing it’s at the highest importance to keep track of you’re competitors. Even more important is getting the same standard and improve it just to be a step ahead. Losing you’re competitors’ out of site is the way to kill yourself. This is a very long way to say: “the person behind the company makes the company”

I disagree when it comes to internet marketing. In internet marketing it’s at the highest importance to keep track of you’re competitors. Even more important is getting the same standard and improve it just to be a step ahead.

Losing you’re competitors’ out of site is the way to kill yourself.

]]> By: Tony Hollowell http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7473 Tony Hollowell Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:41:38 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7473 "if someone else is in your market, it means you have to create something truly useful." I think this is the essence of it all. If you have a product that solves a problem and it is useful, people will buy it. If it doesn't solve problems, it doesn't get purchased. I considered using Intuit to help with my small business, but a small amount of research (and use of their product) indicates that it doesn't even work. Nice graphs on the outside of a pretty box, useless jibberish on the inside. Yeah, they sell software that is supposed to help with my business accounting, but unfortunately, the engineers forgot to make it "truly useful". The more I run around this world, the more I realize that most products don't do what they claim they will do, and there is no category of products in which this is more true than software. If someone creates something that helps me (instead of claiming to help me), I will pay them for years to come. “if someone else is in your market, it means you have to create something truly useful.”

I think this is the essence of it all. If you have a product that solves a problem and it is useful, people will buy it. If it doesn’t solve problems, it doesn’t get purchased. I considered using Intuit to help with my small business, but a small amount of research (and use of their product) indicates that it doesn’t even work. Nice graphs on the outside of a pretty box, useless jibberish on the inside. Yeah, they sell software that is supposed to help with my business accounting, but unfortunately, the engineers forgot to make it “truly useful”.

The more I run around this world, the more I realize that most products don’t do what they claim they will do, and there is no category of products in which this is more true than software.

If someone creates something that helps me (instead of claiming to help me), I will pay them for years to come.

]]> By: Davina http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7429 Davina Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:50:21 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7429 Hi Jessica, I found your blog off of Alana Taylor's. I've been compulsively reading your posts in order to re-energize and bulk up on your optimism. I like it! Davina Hi Jessica,

I found your blog off of Alana Taylor’s. I’ve been compulsively reading your posts in order to re-energize and bulk up on your optimism. I like it!

Davina

]]> By: A Noah Arc» Blog Archive » SearchEkko Has Launched http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7409 A Noah Arc» Blog Archive » SearchEkko Has Launched Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:03:39 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7409 [...] case, I’ll have to muse on SearchEkko’s future more. In the meantime you can read about competition at Jessica Mah’s [...] [...] case, I’ll have to muse on SearchEkko’s future more. In the meantime you can read about competition at Jessica Mah’s [...]

]]> By: Jakub Kaplan http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7385 Jakub Kaplan Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:32:56 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7385 Well, I would think that you need to differ your competition in two fields: the technical/feature one, and the marketing one, or more generally the human dimension of the competition. To me, the more I learn about the life of real products, the more overwhelming the marketing dimension seems (and note that I am a CompSci). You can have as many cool features as you want, but after you add one new feature, what really makes the difference is how much you have people know about it, that is, how many eye-pairs actually see the news. That may well be a reason why you're losing actual customers to the large company. It's just once you have more publicity available, you've got a Premium that is extremely hard to attain for the new companies. In general, then, when I think whether the idea I currently have is feasible start to end, how I would make people know about it is always the most important part of it. Well, I would think that you need to differ your competition in two fields: the technical/feature one, and the marketing one, or more generally the human dimension of the competition.

To me, the more I learn about the life of real products, the more overwhelming the marketing dimension seems (and note that I am a CompSci). You can have as many cool features as you want, but after you add one new feature, what really makes the difference is how much you have people know about it, that is, how many eye-pairs actually see the news.

That may well be a reason why you’re losing actual customers to the large company. It’s just once you have more publicity available, you’ve got a Premium that is extremely hard to attain for the new companies.

In general, then, when I think whether the idea I currently have is feasible start to end, how I would make people know about it is always the most important part of it.

]]> By: clibou http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996&cpage=1#comment-7381 clibou Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:06:48 +0000 http://jessicamah.com/blog/?p=996#comment-7381 Well thought, well said Jedi Jess! Well thought, well said Jedi Jess!

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