Is it a compliment when someone blatantly copies you?
How would you handle this situation if you were in my shoes?
Over the past year, we’ve noticed quite a few people copying different features and models from FundingUniverse. Of course, we have taken notice and been a little bothered, but didn’t think that it was that big of a deal. However, this situation takes the cake and so I thought it deserved a blog entry.
Over the weekend, I found out that 2 “members” of the FundingUniverse network have blatantly copied a ton of the FundingUniverse model to try and start their own competitive company. When you check out Plan Heaven, you’ll notice a lot of really familiar features. For example, you’ll notice their sorting features and table… plan name, state, industry, rating, comments, and VideoPitch — that all sounds VERY familiar. You’ll see that they have “real-time alerts” for their investor network.
What’s even more interesting is how they have found all of that information. It appears that the 2 have been active members of our site since February. One of them has signed up for our entrepreneur network and has conveniently been asking a ton of questions about FundingUniverse. The other has joined the angel network and has reviewed over 100 plans on our website. Hmmmm… smells fishy to me. This last week, he sent me an email to find out how he can contact the rest of the investors in our network — pretty funny, huh?
To be honest, I kind of like to see other people try to copy you. As mentioned above, we’ve seen it quite a bit with some of the innovations that we have created (VideoPitch, SpeedPitching, Weekly Chats, etc.). We’ll just keep doing our thing and take it as a compliment when someone copies our stuff.
Hey Brock- Sorry to hear about the recent displays of espionage. To take it has as a compliment is one good way to look at it. Another thing to do is take the situation and use it to your advantages.
For example, what products/services are you currently offering that are easy to duplicate? If they are easy to duplicate, can you improve product/service to make them very difficult to copy? What legal protections can you be taking (copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc…)to protect your product/services?
We just went through something pretty similar with a competitor and we ended up changing our product in a way where they simply could not compete with us. We used their cheap tactics of copying to motivate and push us to create a better product. Fun stuff!!!
Hope all else is going well, love checking your blog from time to time.
Brock,
I would add a section in your terms of service that allows you to discontinue service to anybody for any reason, allowing you to delete their profiles if they don’t work with you. I would call and tell them what you see, and if they will not work with you on the issues I would have a lawyer send them a letter telling them that they are in copyright violation and website dress violation and request modifications within a time frame or that you are requiring that they ceased and desist the knock off website. Then I would blog about what they did in response to this, it will show if they are people that one would want to do business with. It’s not worth paying much in lawyer fees but it’s worth a little to keep your integrity… They maybe telling people you copied them! Or a least some people may think so. It would only take a few minutes of your time and then continue to innovate and put it in the past.
TTYL amigo.
Part of what I’m hearing also makes me think of the “Innovator’s Dilemma.” Clayton Christensen, a Harvard B-School professor, wrote about the evolution of technology (or services, or anything else marketable) and how it disrupts established firms. He also offers the “Innovator’s Solution” and details how to combat the potentially deadly (for your firm) effects of your competitor’s actions and offerings.
Of course, if they are clearly infringing on patents or other proprietary resources, then you could strong arm them, I’m sure…but I’m not in the legal business.
Good luck.
D
Sure it’s a compliment. It’s also an opportunity for you to look at how you you can offer an even better product.