stay loyal to your creativity because it's a gift
a year ago i was shipping many apps, some of which were open source
not gonna namedrop but there was one 'solopreneur' from india who copied band4band everything i did:
> i launched textbehindimage, went absolutely viral on X. 2 months later man built the exact same app and did his own sequence of posts on X. copy was similar as well
> i launched a different app called 'brandthetics'. couple weeks later he launched an app (in a different niche) called 'Appthetics
> now ppl are saying he cloned an opensource project and built a product wrapper around it
now imma get myself clear, i do not have anything against copycats
in fact many great companies were, to a particular degree, copycats of something from the past. they would then evolve into their own, developing a strong moat in a specific coreset
they're only limiting their potential, theres nothing i can do about it
as if it wasn't obvious by now, evidence shows this dude still HASN'T grown out of his 'copycat' bubble and started innovating by solving super niche problems with great solutions
despite me calling it out multiple times over the span of a year
otherwise you limit your growth
(credit to whoever i got first pic from sorry i missed your handle)
if you're a first time founder thinking of copying a successful product 1:1
this will NOT get you a seat at the table
one of my apps went insanely viral last year: i built text-behind-image and scaled it to 400K users
every single day i see at least one copycat building the exact same product
the ui is identical, the branding is identical, the social media content is copy-pasted... it's embarrassing lol
(i've even seen copycats of copycats)
this shi doesn't bother me & if your app is getting copied, take it as validation you're doing something right
you'll either outcompete them on distribution or maintain OG status as the first mover
but here's the brutal truth most won't tell you:
respect in this industry comes from building something unique & growing the shit out of it
you'll forever be known as the mf who copied the OG creator band for band - until you learn to pivot & build something that's actually yours
the saddest part? these copycats spend months rebuilding what already exists instead of solving new problems
while they're busy being discount versions of me, i'm already 5 products ahead
stop being a copycat & start being a creator
the market rewards originality - not going 100% band for band
so go and build your own legacy!!!
respect for the big dogs!!!