Should I move forward with my idea if it is similar to someone else's?

It's a cliched statement - 'Competition is good, it shows that there is market'. There are a few things that you could learn from the existing websites

The first version is mostly not going to be liked by the customers - learn the mistakes the early entrants made and adapt your product towards that - accelerates growth

Any hot industry / space is bound to have competition. Even if there were no sites that do the same thing as you do, the moment you launch there would be 2-3 product targeting the same segment.

You are passionate about it - go for it!

Think of what you're doing differently. If it adds value to the end user, yes. If you have to re-train the world to use your website, or if it has too many "if only this works, it will be a hit", think about it more.

Remember, the early worm gets the bird, but the second mouse gets the cheese!

Good luck!

Yes. Or at least, you shouldn't not move forward just because you've found one other. In a twisted sense this is a good thing -- it "validates" that there's an interesting market.

The existence of another company doesn't mean the market is saturated and satisfied. You might appeal to a different audience, or solve the problem a different (better?) way, or develop better distribution channels, or there's enough market for you two to happily co-exist.

It's smart to get educated about your competition, how they position, why people use their service, and make sure they don't have any scary competitive advantages. You can learn from what they do good/bad and do something better.

But in the grand scheme of things, don't let them scare you away. Worry about finding the magical "product/market fit" and building something people want.

It's all about research at this point. Some suggestions:

• Learn all about your competitors. How are they funded? How big are they? How long have they been around? How big is their audience / customer base? What type of resources do they have to spend on marketing and sales? What partnerships do they have? How is their product built? What's their pricing? And more.

• Do a SWOT analysis of your idea. If you pushed forward on this and implemented your vision, what STRENGTHS would you have? Funding? Relationships for partnerships? Cheaper development resources? Feature differences. Etc. Then WEAKNESSES - you actually have less funding, brand new entity with no track record or credibility, etc. Whatever. What OPPORTUNITIES might you have? Could be your unique features let you do something different. Could be connections at potential partners. Could be a great idea you've got that your competitors haven't done. Could be a lot of things. Finally, what are the threats? Could be they've got a strong development team and greater resources so any differences you have that are valued by customers could be copied quickly. Could be thin funding. Again, the list goes on.

• Big thing is to find out if your target audience cares about that "particular way" that you're different. This is tougher since you don't want to give away the idea. But look to trusted people in your network who might be able to provide feedback, etc. A mistake I see so much,including myself, is "breathing your own fumes" where we talk ourselves into our difference being so awesome and great and wonderful. Often others couldn't care less.

• Do the math. Do a simple business plan outline. What's the investment to deliver on your idea, what revenue do you think you could generate? (Taking into account market size, product pricing, etc.)

Those are a few things that jump to mind.

Best,