An open letter to those who’ve forgotten about healthy competition

The first time it happened I didn’t know how to feel about it. A senior employee at a multinational travel company, with TV commercials running all the time, was posing as a potential customer looking into Oaky:

“Hello, I would like to schedule a demo for my parents’ hotel in Germany”

Happy about the inbound lead (in this beginning phase our inbound leads were as uncommon as water in the desert) we planned the demo. The e-mail address was [first name][last name]@gmail.com. Ok fair enough, the demo was for her parents’ hotel after all.

But something didn’t feel right. This request was just too different compared to any other. So I checked out her name on LinkedIn. And there it was:

Senior Developer at [Huge multinational travel company]

WHAT?!

I now knew that the Senior Developer at [Huge multinational travel company] did not know that I knew she was faking the demo, I suppose one could call it spying.

What would have been just a complete waste of time, now turned into a really interesting game where I knew that she didn’t know that I knew.

Flattered that [Huge multinational travel company] had their eyes on Oaky, we went ahead with the demo. And about 20 minutes in, only to see that she wasn’t going to be honest, I busted her and told her I knew.

This was of course very embarrassing for her, and we ended the conversation shortly thereafter.

But the whole situation got me thinking..

We found businesses to create awesome solutions that solve important problems. Maybe especially in the field of technology, companies are founded because the founders truly believe that their product will be the best solution to a problem. It’s about something bigger. And the way to get there, in my opinion, is not by spying on a competitor in an attempt to find a shortcut.

Then recently it happened again. Just slightly different this time:

“Hello, can we plan a demo for one of our hotel customers?”

We had a fun conversation and I remember hanging up the phone thinking that this is going to be a deal. For sure.

Some weeks later I received an e-mail thanking for the demo, but that they chose for another solution. Oh, well - at least it was a nice talk and I wished them all the best.

That was until recently, when I heard of a start-up that launched to the market with a solution very similar to ours. Guess who stood behind that company… :)

This letter goes out to you guys.

And believe me, I’m not bitter. Not at all. We’re confident in our product, and it's flattering that you take inspiration from what we’ve developed. But there is an unwritten etiquette of healthy competition that says we should respect our competitors, because healthy competition is important to us both.

Companies with solutions to the same problems help each other. It costs tons of money to educate the market, so it’s great to ride on each other’s marketing efforts. In the long-term we want to learn from each other, get inspired and bring better solutions to the market thanks to our competition. But we also want to be respected by our competitors.

I believe there is nothing as powerful as being respectful and transparent.

Even if you’re my closest competitor, I’d love to have a coffee with you. Because it’s much more interesting for me to get to know the people behind your company than spying on the product you have in place right now. After all, whatever someone has built today is only one good idea away from improving until tomorrow.  

So next time, let’s meet and get to know each other instead!

Warm regards from Amsterdam,

Erik, co-founder at Oaky
You can reach me at [email protected]

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Have we met? My Name is Erik Tengen, Swedish and living in Amsterdam. My business, Oaky, help hotels increase revenues and to prevent complaints from guests that have left the hotel.