We're running a startup for over a year now that has got some traction. We just found out a well-funded competitor rebranded to a name that is extremely similar to ours (but shorter).
Like xxxxx.com and xxxxxy.com
They're a direct competitor - what's our best course of action?
Approach them, ignore and keep on truckin, see if they want to acquire?
Is it bad or actually beneficial for us?
2) Consider reaching out to them, and saying this seems a bit wrong and you'd appreciate if they didn't do this. Probably a mistake and all that nice language. Nothing threatening but allude to we're looking at options and this is going o be a waste of everyone's time/resources.
3) Consider turning it into a social media campaign. especially if they are bigger than you. everyone likes to back David in a fight against Goliath if you present this well. It could work well you both of you to start a them vs us conversation and keep feeding it.
4) SEO the buggery out of your brand name ASAP. If you have been around a while with some presence you will win searches easily around this. Even if winning you want to strengthen for future position as a well funded company will want in here. Also consider doing some sub domains, and other listing to try and own the core word across multiple google and any other relevant listings.
4) Keep a close eye on paid ads for the name. It sux to buy your brand name but it seems likely to be necessary and you likely need to do this if a compeitor is doing it and your losing revenue because of this.
5) How locked in on the brand name are you? You could offer to sell it to them? If there a big company and your smaller bootstrap they might pay some decent dollars to make the issue go away if they've invest heavily in this brand name and committed.
Generally, I think this cant help. Social media 'product fight' could become a good attention thing but really you want to own your name and key terms. And a big company could blow you out of the water for your own name which would be a real issue.
Not sure about approaching for acquire. It might seed a thought but at the same time if they want this I'd want o play a bit 'were not planning that and pay top dollar please'... but who knows...
Good luck.