When people launch a new product, the instinct is usually the same: invent a brand-new category, create a completely different workflow, and convince everyone they've never seen anything like it before.
I decided to do the opposite.
Today I'm building Sowiks, a screenshot tool. It's hardly a new category. There are excellent competitors with loyal users, polished products, and years of development behind them.
And honestly, that's one of the biggest advantages.
The most expensive marketing campaign has already been paid for.
Thousands of users already understand why a dedicated screenshot tool is better than the built-in one that comes with their operating system. They've already learned the workflows, adopted the habits, and integrated these tools into their daily work.
I don't have to teach the market that screenshot tools matter.
I only have to convince people that Sowiks is a better choice.
Competing for Preference, Not for Awareness
One of the biggest misconceptions in startups is that competition is bad.
In reality, having no competitors often means there's no proven demand—or worse, that you'll have to spend years educating the market before anyone is willing to buy.
In an established category, users are already searching for solutions. They're typing queries into Google, watching YouTube reviews, comparing products on Reddit, and asking colleagues for recommendations.
That's a completely different marketing problem.
Instead of asking:
"Why would anyone need this?"
the conversation becomes:
"Why should I switch to your product?"
From a marketing perspective, those are worlds apart.
My Biggest Advantage? I'm Already a Customer.
For years I've been a happy CleanShot X user.
I've recommended it to friends, coworkers, and other founders countless times.
Now I'm trying to replace it—with my own product.
That turns out to be one of the most honest forms of product validation.
Every time I instinctively reach for a feature that doesn't exist yet in Sowiks, I feel the friction immediately. I don't need surveys to tell me what's missing—I experience it myself.
There's another lesson hidden in that.
I'm not trying to redesign familiar workflows simply to look different.
If an interaction already works and millions of users understand it, changing it for the sake of originality usually creates more friction than value.
Users shouldn't have to relearn everything just because they've installed a new app.
Let them keep their habits.
Then give them reasons to stay.
Don't Copy Features. Create Reasons to Switch.
The hardest part isn't building something that looks similar.
The hardest part is giving someone enough value to overcome the switching cost.
People don't just invest money in software.
They invest muscle memory.
Keyboard shortcuts.
Automations.
Years of habit.
A new product doesn't win by being almost as good.
It wins by consistently saving time, removing frustration, or unlocking workflows that weren't possible before.
For example, one feature I'm building automatically uploads screenshots directly into the WordPress media library while I'm writing articles.
It's a tiny improvement.
But for me, it saves around twenty minutes every single time I publish a post.
That's the kind of feature that justifies switching.
The Monobank Strategy
This reminds me of how Monobank entered the Ukrainian banking market.
They didn't invent online banking.
They simply looked at what people already used and made almost every part of the experience a little bit better.
Same category.
Same service.
Better execution.
It's a strategy that reminds me of Formula 1.
At first you stay in another driver's slipstream, using less energy while learning the race.
Then, when the opportunity appears, you overtake.
Being first is expensive.
Being better is often much cheaper.
The Most Underrated Source of Product Ideas
Recently I've started doing something I never did before.
Before building a major feature, I read my competitors' changelogs.
Not their landing pages.
Not their feature comparison tables.
The release history.
Sometimes going back several years.
Marketing pages only show the polished destination.
A changelog shows the journey.
You can see features that were rewritten three times.
Ideas that quietly disappeared after a few releases.
Capabilities that took years to mature.
Product decisions that looked obvious in hindsight—but clearly weren't obvious while they were being built.
In many ways, a competitor's changelog is a public archive of their mistakes, trade-offs, and technical debt.
And the best part?
You get to learn from those lessons for free.
It's also a surprisingly powerful marketing resource.
If a company keeps investing in the same area year after year, users probably care about it.
If a feature appears once and is never mentioned again, maybe it never created meaningful value.
These days I ask AI a different question.
Instead of asking:
"How should I build this?"
I ask:
"What have competitors already learned the hard way?"
The second question usually saves far more time.
Marketing Starts Long Before Launch Day
One thing I've come to appreciate is that marketing doesn't begin when you start buying ads.
Marketing begins when you're studying customers.
Reading App Store reviews.
Analyzing competitor roadmaps.
Understanding which features people happily pay for—and which ones they completely ignore.
You're essentially observing a giant focus group that someone else has already funded.
That's an incredible advantage if you're willing to pay attention.
What the App Store Review Process Taught Me
Launching on Apple's App Store reinforced the same lesson: learn from mistakes—preferably someone else's.
Here are three things I wish I'd known sooner.
1. Sign in with Apple isn't optional.
If your app supports third-party login like Google or Facebook, Apple expects you to offer Sign in with Apple as well.
2. Users must be able to delete their account completely.
Not by emailing support.
Not by submitting a request.
Directly from inside the app.
3. Your App Store listing must match reality exactly.
Most of my rejections weren't caused by bugs.
They happened because the product description suggested functionality that wasn't available yet—or wasn't clearly explained.
That's a marketing lesson as much as an App Store lesson.
Great marketing doesn't promise more than the product actually delivers.
Sometimes a single sentence costs several extra days waiting for another review.
Final Thoughts
I don't believe "never be first" is universal advice.
Some categories absolutely reward the pioneers.
But if you're entering a market where customers already understand the problem, competitors have already educated the audience, and you personally use the existing products every day, maybe you don't need to invent an entirely new category.
Maybe you simply need to build the product you always wished existed.
Because sometimes the strongest marketing strategy isn't creating a new market.
It's becoming the obvious choice in one that already exists.
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