YC Alumni is copying us with $2.3M funding
We built EngageAI, now Silicon Valley is copying us with $2.3M funding from top VCs, incl Y Combinator!
I was doing my usual quarterly competitor screening to see any updates on the existing competitors.
As I was scrolling through the search results, I found a few new competitors now joining the industry we created.
It's no longer a surprise because I'm seeing them every day.
There was a guy who recorded our video meeting when I chatted with him last year. He then launched an exact copy.
There was a guy who interviewed me on his podcast, then persuaded me to become his CTO, and eventually copied our entire product, which he called FlyEngage.
There was also a business associate whom we partnered with for years who copied the product for his clients who use his LinkedIn lead generation services.
Oh well, the list goes on...
But that's not the main story today.
What surprised me this time, though, is that a few of the new copycats now go to the extent of copying our product name.
It ranges from EngageGPT, EngageBot, EngageWithAI, and Engage by company xyz.
Naturally, I clicked to read more about their product & see how they differ.
At the same time, I must admit—annoyance also filled my head.
I have no problem with anyone copying our product. It's a free market, after all.
What annoyed me is that they now go to the extent of trying to confuse the market into thinking they are the same as us.
Sure, you can argue that the word "Engage" is a common English word.
I get it, & equally many other competitors do. That's why they choose a unique & different name to stand out in the crowd and fight for their space.
Nevertheless, I did more research on each of them to keep my team and myself updated in this competitive landscape.
I googled all the above, including Engagerr AI and Engage by Persana—LinkedIn Comments with AI.
Of all of them, Engage by Persana—LinkedIn Comments with AI—is all over the news.
Apparently, they just announced they raised $2.3 million from Y Combinator, Dharmesh Shah, Race Capital, & Stage 2 Capital.
Oh wait, they are also LinkedIn veterans.
As quoted in the news, Edith Yeung, General Partner at Race Capital, said: “Customers at fast-growing enterprises are thrilled with Persana, as their sales teams experience increased productivity and efficiency in prospecting efforts.”
No doubt, jealousy filled my head, and so did anger.
I mean, WTF.
I have no problem with anyone copying our product and competing.
But have some f%^king class to choose a different name.
You just raised $2.3 million!
Can't you afford to have someone on your team come up with a better name?
Can't you afford to do something better with your funding?
Can't you have some class to avoid confusing users and compete fairly?
What a load of crap.
After talking to my team, I started to calm down.
All these VCs and the best accelerator in the world, Y Combinator, which I admire deeply, are putting $2.3 million into someone to copy our product and name.
We must have done something right.
We have acquired 70,000 users by bootstrapping.
And they have 16 users installed their Chrome extension. (bird emoji here)
And yet it's full of praises in the news...
Oh my......
What a world we live in.
Never mind, I'm going to help them.
Search Engage by Persana - LinkedIn Comments with AI on Chrome store. Please install and help them out.
And search Engage AI for our extension, please compare the two and tell me
Which one do you enjoy more?
How can we improve your experience?
Why do you choose one but not the other?
My inbox is always open, and I talk to our customers every day.
I look forward to speaking with you and improving your prospecting experience on LinkedIn.
Jason
Not from FAANG or in the Valley, but someone who has actually prospected clients on LinkedIn to build his consulting business like many other business owners You're on the right track in channeling this negative energy into productive work on the company. There are a few things to keep in mind, some of them you've already argued yourself. One, Engage is a common word, so that's on you, and two, more importantly, in today's SEO/ASO/other algorithmic wars, if you truly are the leader in this space, people will copy as much of your name/branding as possible to steal your customers' attention. You are absolutely not in a unique position in this regard, if you want evidence, look at this top 50 generative AI mobile apps ranking: https://isarta.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image-6-1.... Count the amount of Chat + "something" names, and the amount of practically identical logos as ChatGPT in addition. That's the game these days, if you are successful, you will be copied relentlessly. And the copycats might not even be copycats in the sense you're thinking. Automated customer engagement, LinkedIn or otherwise, is probably among the top 3 ideas that came to mind to anyone working in the sales/CRM space as soon as LLMs became convincingly human in conversation. So it's just thousands of people realizing the same opportunity at roughly the same time, going out to build it, maybe checking if there's a significant player in the space already, learning from their mistakes, copying the parts that made sense, and firing on all cylinders to become the leader in the space. Yes, someone with more money might even beat you to the #1 spot, and the people who you think are your competitors right now might not even be relevant in a year, when various CRM companies build this functionality into their systems as a feature. In an even worse scenario, companies like Persana might be acquired with way worse numbers than you have, because of the network, the budget, the lower risk due to being ex-LinkedIn, etc. None of this is particularly "fair" in the school playground sense of the word, but rarely anything is in business. If you have a true competitive advantage in terms of product, you have better odds than most, but maybe someone is going to beat you on distribution, pricing, marketing, targeting, to the point that product will barely matter. It's on you to figure out what you want to focus on, and what outcome you will be happy with. If you have the metrics, you can probably fundraise easily. You might not want to, because you want to bootstrap, but then stop wasting energy on thinking about competitors who are doing it differently. Whatever choices you make, make them, and focus on your own path. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts. Mark my words, I am focusing on our path and I will win this game.
