So you want to copy that successful startup

I understand why you'd want to copy a successful startup. It feels safe. When you see someone post their $10K MRR milestone on Twitter or share their journey on Indie Hackers, you know there's a real market. Real customers. Real revenue. Why take a chance on an unproven idea when you can build something that's already working?

While it might feel like the safer path, it actually puts you in a riskier position. By the time you launch your form builder, reddit monitoring tool, or "X but for Y" clone, you're not just competing with the original - you're competing with twenty other people who are doing the exact same thing.

The copycat problem

Here's what typically happens:

1. A founder shares success with their form builder
2. Twenty other builders think "great idea!" and start coding
3. Three months later, we have nearly identical products with:
   • Same features
   • Same pricing
   • Same landing pages
   • Same target market

Then you launch. It gets a few upvotes, maybe some early sign-ups, but real sales? They're hard to come by. Potential customers see you as just another untrusted newcomer in a crowded space. Why should they pick you over the established player or the ten other alternatives?

After a few months of struggle, you start eyeing the next trending product on Twitter. "Maybe that one will work," you think. And the cycle begins again. Build, launch, struggle, abandon. Rinse and repeat.

Not only are customers confused by all the identical options, but you're stuck in a loop of starting over, never giving yourself a real chance to build something meaningful. When everything looks the same, customers default to either the established player or the cheapest option—and you'll lose on both fronts.

Breaking free from the echo chamber

So how do you build something truly different? These are my two approaches:

1. Do real audience research

I've written a detailed guide on how to conduct audience research using Reddit. It shows you exactly how to uncover problems no one else is solving and find gaps in the market that others have missed.

Check it out below:

Scratch their itch

A four-part guide to finding problems your customers will pay you to solve. Each part builds on the previous one, taking you from initial research to validation. The Series Part 1: Finding Real Customer Problems in the Wild Learn how to discover where your potential customers are already having authentic

Shavin PeiriesShavin Peiries

This method will help you understand:

• Where to find your target audience discussing problems
• The exact moment people realize they need a solution
• Why current options aren't cutting it
• Which specific groups are most frustrated
• The creative workarounds people are using which can inform your product idea
• How to validate with waitlists before writing any code

2. Use lateral thinking

Instead of copying competitors, look at how similar problems are solved in completely different industries.

Here are two examples:

1. The team behind Basecamp has mastered this approach. When they launched Basecamp, they ignored how other project management tools copied Microsoft Project's complex features. Instead, they took inspiration from chat rooms to create a simpler way for teams to talk about work.
2. Here's a more recent example from an indie founder: While everyone builds directory listing services ("List your startup on 300 sites for $500!"), one founder took a different approach. They studied how people actually discover products through social proof and built AI-powered discussion forums. Instead real people discussing problems, it was AI bots. When Google crawls these forums, it sees active product discussions and boosts rankings naturally. Same goal, completely different solution.

The impact of being different

When you build something truly differentiated:

• Customers can quickly understand why you're different
• Your marketing writes itself (no more "we're like X but better")
• You can charge based on your unique value, not market averages
• Sales conversations focus on fit, not feature comparisons/parity

How to start

1. Pick a problem space (yes, even a crowded one)
2. Use the Reddit research method to understand real user problems
3. Look for patterns others have missed
4. Research how similar problems are solved in other industries
5. Build something that makes people say "huh, I never thought of solving it that way"

Remember: It's better to be different for a specific group of people than to be slightly better for everyone. Your goal isn't to build a better mousetrap - it's to solve the rat problem in a way no one expected.

The next time you're tempted to clone the latest successful startup, pause. Do the research. Think laterally. Build something that makes people wonder why no one thought of it before.

Yes, you'll need to stomach some uncertainty - it's inherently uncomfortable to chart your own path while everyone else follows the crowd. But that discomfort is far better than the certainty of failing by being just another copy in a crowded market.

Audience research reveals what problems people will pay to solve. Lateral thinking will help you see unique solutions no one else sees.

P.S. If you want to get better at thinking differently and solving problems creatively, I highly recommend reading Predatory Thinking by Dave Trott.

It's packed with stories and examples that will help you break free from conventional thinking patterns and find unique solutions to problems.