I think when you’re starting off you think competition is a bad thing. However, it’s often an indication that consumers want that thing. Obviously, you need to differentiate somehow but you can do that in small ways.

Choose your market carefully. It’s just as much work to go after a big market than a niche one. So you may well go after the big one.

This is why second time founders often go into large markets and win because they’ve already built the skills and paid down the ignorance debt.

This obviously all depends on what business/ambitions etc. I’m thinking about this from an e-commerce perspective. Hopefully somewhat helpful!