After almost 3 years of full-time indie hacking, I want to share a few words about the “Copycats vs Competitors” debate.
In the past years, I’ve seen people ripping off my work almost weekly.
Competitors
Competitors are a good thing for your business, it means that there is demand on the market for your product. A competitor might build a similar app in a different market or execute your product idea in a slightly different way in the same market.
Both ways are beneficial for you and your business because they help both your and your competitors push harder and evolve your products.
In a nutshell, you need to seek competitors in your market and even engage with them to evolve your businesses.
Copycats
On the other hand, copycats are useless to the ecosystem. They literally are parasites, who smell an opportunity for quick bucks. Normally, they rip off the work of others
Copycats can’t harm you, and they will rarely be on business after 2-3 months.