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I spend a lot of time thinking about potential start up ideas. I come up with a couple every now and then, but when I go searching online there is always quite a few competitors. I don't think I've come up with an idea that no one has already thought of. Because of this I've been deterred from starting anything. Now I'm thinking I should look at the competition and decide if it is worth competing in the idea space. What should one look for when trying to determine if it is worth competing in an idea space?

For example, I recently thought of innovative support software, but when I looked around I found that sites like Zendesk and Snap Engage (and probably quite a few more) are already implementing the things I was thinking of doing. Based on the quality of those products, and the amount of competitors, it doesn't seem like a space that is worth trying to compete in.

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Well turn the problem around: can you think of a SINGLE startup that became big and that started something no one else was doing before? The goal of entrepreneurship is to build a company that grows so big that at one point it stops being called a startup. And how do you grow to become a large company? By executing in a growing market and doing it better than other competitors, both in terms of the product offered and the distribution strategy.

Besides, if you think of an idea that no one else is doing, that might mean there's no market for it, or that you're too early in the market. Do you want to be the one educating new customers? Here's the Inc. list of the 500 fastest growing companies. The top-ranked company does payment processing: do you think that had never been done before they started? All these companies are operating in fast-moving markets; it's just that they do a better job than others, mostly by innovating. Note that innovating and inventing are two different things: innovating is about taking something that's already been invented, and making it work. Instagram wasn't the first picture-sharing company; it's just that they innovated by allowing users to apply filters to their pictures. Stackoverflow wasn't the first QA site; it's just that they made one that works. Find broken stuff in growing markets, make something that works and then scale it. And while it seems that everything you look at is already fixed, there is and always will be plenty of stuff that sucks; it's just that you never hear about things that suck.

Just pick a growing space where you think your expertise will enable you to outperform others and do a better job than they're doing. That's when to compete.

Good luck.

PS: You're not alone: quite a few investors also think like you do.

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Ideally, you would have competition - big profitable competition - but you would have an idea that serves the same market, but with a much better product. – JeffS Oct 26 '12 at 17:57
up vote 9 down vote

Frenchie says it well.

For ex: Facebook wasn't the first to market in Social Networking, neither is Google for Search, nor Apple for Device maker, nor Microsoft for Operating systems, nor Firefox for browsers, not Starbucks for Coffee, nor Southwest for Airlines, nor Nordstrom for Retail store, you get the idea..

Start up is about getting the right team, and solve a problem, not necessarily THE problem.

First to Market has an additional job of creating the market, which is a heavy Marketing budget initiative, unless you got unlimited cash to throw at educating the customer, you might actually be better off serving the customers, where there are existing products.

World is a large place with a Couple of Billion population, Companies the size of Google Search also share with Equally big competitors like Baidu, and both have a decent sized market for themselves.

Learn to Share the world and Eat your pie.

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