Another startup blatantly copied us

> What would you do in this situation?

Chuckle and move on. You cannot build a business on non-defensible stuff like website copy and introduction videos. Time spent worrying about this, or worse, fighting back, is wasted time and will only make things worse. As a startup you have more important things to worry about than this.

What makes you better than the competition? I assume it's the network you have built already? If it's your landing page copy, then you may be in trouble.

Though it's understandable that the people who created the content in the first place are upset about their work being stolen. I guess what they did was so good that others just wanted to use it :)

I disagree with some posters asking you to move on and focus on something more important. Someone literally stole your work. It is not just an "inspiration". You should absolutely contact them and ask them to take it down. Send them a DMCA notice if needed. We should never condone theft saying "Move on because it is a waste of your time". Sometimes, you have to fight for what is right. You won't gain anything monetarily out of this but you have to let them know that this is NOT ok.

It seems you have done what you could. It's clear plagiarism and it should be called out.

But I don't think you should get too emotionally invested in it. Just keep doing what you're doing and use it to drive you into moving faster than them. I'd even try to be friends or proper rivals with them, as it means you can poach some of their staff (not the copywriters) if they fail.

I know it can be upsetting because it's something you and others have poured their hearts into.

This happens occasionally. I've had material copied and have seen other people's entire websites copied. Recently, someone stole one of my colleague's startup app idea and posted their own knockoff with the same name in the app store.

Occasionally, I've contacted people who have copied my work and they've taken it down, which is the least expensive way to handle the problem. Other times, they just ignore my communication. You might contact an attorney to find out what your options are, which could vary for any given situation.

Could you report them to Product Hunt? Seems like you have a pretty clear cut case

Public post on Medium congrats to the Cofounders that copied and point out that they copied the best and mix your pitch in and in addition get their mailing address and send them a white wreath of roses with a note saying we are watching you(for those who are not old enough the first president of Apple did this)

Take it as further validation!

You can also be a bit cheeky and call them out and then use it for marketing!

https://medium.com/@zreitano/on-behalf-of-hims-patients-than...

While I'm amused, some of my colleagues were quite offended by this.

Our product manager, who wrote the original copy on Arc, had this comment upon seeing this:

"They actually copied our entire developer application form, I realized that because I was thinking, man they really wrote these like how I would talk in real life, it’s because I came up with all the wording and they just copied them verbatim…….well, they swapped out “cup of joe” for “cup of coffee”. This is highly upsetting"

Always great to know someone thought it was worth trying to copy. Take it as a form of flattery and move on.

Focus on things they can't copy, like revenue and customer satisfaction

Just treat it as more validation of your idea. Don't get too involved and focus on your own business.