How To Compete With Amazon and Google

Step inside the Group Partner Lounge to hear Y Combinator Group Partners Harj Taggar, Michael Seibel and Brad Flora discuss the traps founders often fall into when looking at the competition. They identify the particular types of companies you should watch out for and many more you are wasting your time worrying about.

00:00 - Competitors
00:51 - Fear of the Competition
01:42 - Lies Founders Tell Themselves
02:32 - Most Common Outcomes
03:28 - Perception vs Reality
06:57 - Copycats - Twitch
08:15 - Back to Basics
08:50 - Real Competitive Concerns
09:40 - A Better Product - Socialcam
10:14 - Structural Advantages - Kiko and Perfect Audience
11:20 - "Good Enough" example - Microsoft Teams and Slack
12:30 - FAANG Fails
13:40 - Instacart vs Amazon
14:16 - Cruise vs Google
15:00 - Build a Better Product

#ycombinator #startups #competition #bigtech

[ycombinator]

What mental traps do you fall into when looking around at the competition?

[chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) -
00:00 - Competitors
00:51 - Fear of the Competition
01:42 - Lies Founders Tell Themselves
02:32 - Most Common Outcomes
03:28 - Perception vs Reality
06:57 - Copycats - Twitch
08:15 - Back to Basics
08:50 - Real Competitive Concerns
09:40 - A Better Product - Socialcam
10:14 - Structural Advantages - Kiko and Perfect Audience
11:20 - "Good Enough" example - Microsoft Teams and Slack
12:30 - FAANG Fails
13:40 - Instacart vs Amazon
14:16 - Cruise vs Google
15:00 - Build a Better Product

[Okeh_Emmanuel]

This was timely, we are at a point in our company where the competition who recently raised 7 figures and pumping most of the money into ads have given us some concerns... yet our numbers are good and we seem to be making better product decisions inspite no funding round or big media publicity yet.

[terrylennon]

Definitely felt the fear/pain of 'looking over at competitors' super super keenly - especially the point of seeing them raise a mammoth Series A, and being like "that's it *kicks over table* ...it's all over!"

I think that the piece on talking to users and having that intimate understanding of their problem is so understated - almost like this solves the paradigm of watching a competitor blow up too, but knowing that despite the alarm bells ringing, you're still solving user problems and providing value.

[brandoYT]

Sounds similar to Tesla strategy - focus on the product, constantly improve the product. Competitors are constantly creating new products [new engines, new body style, new seats etc.] Tesla focus on product to scale production which cuts costs and leads to best profit margin in the vehicle industry.

[joshwilson]

The truth is you aren't competing against Amazon, you're competing against a junior product manager who works at Amazon. Once you realise that the challenge is far less daunting.

[londonl.]

I wrote a piece about similar worries as a startup founder on Medium (London Lowmanstone - "Network Effects are Software’s Defensible Moat"). So great to see people who have actually talked to so many different startups and can give examples of failures and successes and the ratio that's actually seen in the world, rather than guesses based out of fear.

[Daniel-nybn]

These guys are therapists for tech startups

[derek-yap]

When big companies try to copy features or products a lot of times they don’t get it quite right because of all the politics and bureaucracy in their organizations. Those things can dilute a great idea.

[KaizenWithLevers]

Thnx to the admin for making such a great job on YC lists. Super easy to navigate them

[sachinelearning]

"They have replaced their enthusiasm and replaced it with fear" - This is a 10000% true

[rudyfraser]

Needed to hear this this week. Thank you 🙏🏾

[rohankamath]

Hey YC Team,
Please do a case study on Fast in the next week or two. Would love to hear your take and deep dive on what happened and some learnings for us all from the whole episode.

[SportsIncorporated]

How about if it's 1990 or the early 1990's and you want to build an online encyclopedia (edited by both companies and individuals). Microsoft already has an encyclopedia on CD or DVD. Wouldn't you think they would take the encyclopedia online.

[BuffettAnswers]

Amazing and simple. Build a better product and really care about the customer, because FANG will only scratch the surface and won’t go above and beyond

[zetendra]

Hey ycombinator admin, would you mind creating playlist for partner lounge series? So I don't need to check it out every time. :)

[keyurgandhi]

Hello I want to know how startup company can tie up with big companies for any purpose of startup like API, some information, etc

[jessenorthcutt]

. . . Yes, yes, . . . When Brad Flora brings it back to simply "building a better product" as the priority, rather than the other structural aspects . . .

[StreamAgency]

These videos cut deep and I keep coming back for more.

[vishnunallani]

great video right on time when i needed it.