Stop complaining, startups: copying is awesome and innovation is overrated

Frankly, when I hear that one startup has copied another startup, I really don’t care (give me the numbers, show me the traction). People complain about copying way too much. In my article on comedy website HaiVL one reader said that it’s a “9gag clone like a few others in the market”. While for CocCoc’s recent Coromrowser, some said that “CocCoc stole Chrome source code then renamed it”. And complaints like this don’t just happen online, they happen in conversations at startup events and throughout discussions in meeting rooms. I hear too often comments like “They’re successful but they copied so-and-so”. But seriously, get over it.

Well, here are two quotes for all those people in Asia and Silicon Valley who spend all day complaining about copying and stealing. First, one you’ve probably heard a million times already:

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” – Pablo Picasso

And the less well known:

“It turns out all you gotta do is copy great sh*t 99 percent then innovate one percent every month and you can beat the crap outta most people.” – Dave McClure, 500 Startups.

Being better than the original is better than being the first loser

Frankly, original ideas are truly rare. You really want innovation? Become a scientist. They’re at the real cutting edge. All the hype in consumer startups these days is surrounding Google Glass, but scientists in select universities and research centers across the world are working on drones, brain-computer interfaces, and advanced robotics. Glass is old hat for white coats. And all that “innovative” stuff? It won’t be hitting the mass market for at least five years from now, despite how fast Moore’s Law speeds things along.

Let’s look at the iPhone circa 2007. Everybody thinks it’s oh-so-innovative. The only innovative thing about it – actually, it’s more aptly described as disruptive – is that it synthesized many already known technologies into one place. For all Steve Jobs’ “it’s magical” talk, the only thing Apple really did was put a bunch of existing new technologies (remember Palm Pilot?) into one tight package.

Startups that focus too much on being “the next big thing” and “truly innovative” may have missed the point. Facebook wasn’t the first social network, Google wasn’t the first search engine, Apple didn’t have the first MP3 player, and Henry Ford didn’t have the first car. The moral of the story here is innovation is completely overrated, and copying is normal. Not only is copying normal, it’s part of being human.

For humans, copying is learning

Let me ask you something, when the first human figured out how to use fire to keep warm, what do you think his friend did? He copied it. If he didn’t, he’d be dead. For humans, copying is learning. And the same is true in startups. It’s what we do to survive, and it’s what we do to evolve. How do you think you learned your native language?

And yes, Glass is innovative, in the sense that it’s never been “seen” before. (Although they already have competitors on the market, don’t buy into the hype too much). But the truth is, it’s doing exactly what the iPhone did, building and synthesizing on top of existing technologies. Don’t pay too much attention to the form factor! But I digress.

So if copying is okay, what next?

Copying is okay; in fact, it’s awesome. But the issue is you need to copy what works well, you need to understand what you’re copying, and you need to fit all the stuff you copy into a nice, tight package. Too many startups just copy the outside. You need to copy the soul, don’t copy the skin. And how do you fit it all into a nice package? Think about the user, be the user, and eat your own dog food.

So all this complaining about copying is really old-school talk. Get over it. People have been copying since the beginning of time, it’s not new. Even Silicon Valley startups copy Asian companies. I’m only impressed by startups that have got the numbers and the team to execute the hell out of their market.

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This article by Anh-Minh Do originally appeared on Tech in Asia, a Burn Media publishing partner.