Question from a customer:

Do you think it’s a waste of time to build an alternative to a big SaaS? There’s so many differences that you could add to make it stand out. Why not create a better product than the alternative? Why not create a cheaper alternative? Why not create a simpler version? Why not create an alternative with less/more features?

Answer:

You are not taking into account the friction costs of moving from one solution to another. To succeed, your alternative must be many times better than the competition, not just marginally better. This is because people have very high (both perceived and real) transition costs.

It is much more practical to focus on different, new approaches. Either niches that nobody has thought of yet, or existing niches where the boundary conditions are changing rapidly and your solution is objectively at least x10 times more convenient.