1/23: One #startup trap to avoid (founders and VCs) is to fall in love with a value prop that can’t be delivered IRL now. Good diligence will surface disconnects but they’re often brushed under the rug by #VCs who believe fixing delivery over time will be fine. Unpacked:
More from Startup
The dirty inside secret most first-time entrepreneurs don't know.
14 tools I use to steal from competitors, and build million-dollar businesses.
Housekeeping note:
Don't do anything that destroys your reputation. Copying what works is a simple & practical strategy, but don't cross any boundaries.
In this thread, I'll show you how to steal your competitors' traffic, product ideas, and customers in a 100% fair way.
1. Steal their social media traffic
Drop your competitors' url in https://t.co/n4squ8fjHh
It will tell you what % of their web traffic comes from which social media platform
Looks like this
Generally, this traffic will be from ads and not content. To steal their social traffic, you'll need to steal their ad strategy.
If they're getting their traffic from Facebook...
2. Steal their Facebook ads
Go to Facebook Ad Library and find ads that your competitor has been running for 6+ months.
All of these ads are likely profitable https://t.co/bgqtSOvAe2
14 tools I use to steal from competitors, and build million-dollar businesses.
Housekeeping note:
Don't do anything that destroys your reputation. Copying what works is a simple & practical strategy, but don't cross any boundaries.
In this thread, I'll show you how to steal your competitors' traffic, product ideas, and customers in a 100% fair way.
1. Steal their social media traffic
Drop your competitors' url in https://t.co/n4squ8fjHh
It will tell you what % of their web traffic comes from which social media platform
Looks like this

Generally, this traffic will be from ads and not content. To steal their social traffic, you'll need to steal their ad strategy.
If they're getting their traffic from Facebook...
2. Steal their Facebook ads
Go to Facebook Ad Library and find ads that your competitor has been running for 6+ months.
All of these ads are likely profitable https://t.co/bgqtSOvAe2

You May Also Like
So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.
If everyone was holding bitcoin on the old x86 in their parents basement, we would be finding a price bottom. The problem is the risk is all pooled at a few brokerages and a network of rotten exchanges with counter party risk that makes AIG circa 2008 look like a good credit.
— Greg Wester (@gwestr) November 25, 2018
The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.
This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.
The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."
This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.