Why you shouldn’t listen to “hasn’t someone done that already?”
June 6th, 2008A frequent comment that entrepreneurs hear when they share product ideas is “Hasn’t someone already done that?”
It’s probably one of the most annoying comments one can hear, not because it’s not true (it is) but because it glosses over the entire history of innovation and assigns way too much credit to incumbent players. Think of it as the inverse to the mind-numbing “is y the new x killer?” worldview.
It’s a big market out there. If you think you can do something better, give it a try. Just don’t start off by wanting to kill something else. That’s not very creative.
As a response for anyone faced with this question, I decided to create a short list (of 20, albeit somewhat from a geek’s perspective) products that came after “someone had already done it before.” These randomly popped into my head as I started to catalog what I use on a regular basis:
1. Google Search (and their revenue model)
2. Adobe Flex
3. iPod (and almost all of Apple’s products)
4. Firefox
6. JetBlue
)9. WordPress
10. Twitter
11. FriendFeed
12. Gmail
13. Skype
14. TextMate and others
15. Facebook
16. Google Reader
17. Mint
18. Mint
19. CouchSurfing
20. You - don’t overlook the unique perspective you can bring to anything you happen to be interested in. If you build stuff that you find useful, there’s likely to be a market for it.
One final thought.
In the above list, if I had to identify one or two key factors that contributed to the success of these innovations it would be “simplification” and “ease of use.” Something to keep in mind.
Additional suggestions welcome. I could spend all day doing this and not run out of examples.
June 6th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
“Good artists borrow; great artists steal.”
I learned that a long time ago. It gave me the freedom to do what you’re saying - to keep going even if I’ve realized that somebody has already done what I’m thinking of. Or to start in the first place even though all I’m doing is “Such-and-such, with a twist!”
I agree with you. It works just as well in business as in art. It doesn’t mean it will be successful, but stealing and borrowing ideas doesn’t mean it will fail either.
June 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
[…] Why shouldn’t listen to “hasn’t someone done that already?”: Because doing something that someone else has done, just better, can work. Ray Grieselhuber lists 19 success stories that did just that. […]
June 6th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Palm Pilot (after Netwon and many others)
Windows NT (after Netware)
The one things all of these have in common: the dominant product was generally hated.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Thanks for the inspirational post.
People are fast to tear down ideas or give up and think that if it’s been done before, it’s not worth improving.
It’s hard to innovate and create something new. Sometimes you have to look to what’s already been done for inspiration.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Inspiring. Thanks.
Faruk
June 8th, 2008 at 5:37 am
[…] Why you shouldn’t listen to “hasn’t someone done that already?” :: ambient – a good post on why start-ups shouldn’t necessarily listen to old adages. […]