Should you copy a competitor?

Here’s when it works (and when it doesn’t)

Thank you to Erin Weigel (Author and Senior Design Manager @ Deliveroo), Angèle Lenglemetz (Product @ Cleo), Daphne Tideman (Author and D2C Growth Consultant), Joseph Fitzgibbon (Founder @ Growth & Company, former Head of Growth @ Graze and ClickMechanic), and Octave Auger (VP Marketing @ Faria Education Group) for contributing to this 🙏

I hear this all the time from founders:

• “Let’s not re-invent the wheel”
• “What do the best in class do?”
• “It works for them, it’ll work for us. Right?”

Not necessarily.

In reality, 9 out of 10 direct copycats I’ve seen flop.

At best, you can cut some corners and get inspiration. At worst, you distract your team, slow momentum and build tech debt.

Too often, teams chase the latest feature or trend without understanding why it works—or if it even does.

How it feels to try and be a sheep on the latest trend

We’re often drawing unrealistic comparisons to more mature companies, or we’re copying failing features ☠️ ☠️ ☠️