Horrible idea? The first impression I got of GoPlan was that it had a nice design and looked pretty damn good.

If I was in the market for a web-collab app, I would now be considering GoPlan instead of immediately thinking of 37Signals.

That doesn't seem like a horrible them for them at all.

No one is asking: "How big is this share of this particular market?"

That'd be my question. If these two companies are fighting for share of a tiny pie, it's just stupid. If the pie is much bigger than I believe it is, then the game for market share hasn't even begun yet. The big players haven't even really placed their bets, and that's when things will get interesting (but you have to be there before the big players if you want a chance at walking away a big winner).

Anyway, it's not a market I'd want to go after, because I don't see it being big enough for so many contenders (there are others out there--it's not just these two). But then, almost no market looks big "enough" to outsiders. People are always confused when I make claims about how large our market is (niche software for a 10-20 billion dollar worldwide industry that's increasing at a couple billion per year).

So, if they've researched their market and found it large enough to make for big winners in a year or two, now is a fine time to enter it. Just because you and I know all about 37signals and think they're cool, doesn't mean anybody else knows what the heck they're building. The real market (folks who aren't web 2.0 developers) hasn't even begun buying this product on the web yet, and they certainly will. Everybody has an equal chance to be "first mover" at this point.

I've read alot about 37Signals and quite a few people have said that it's a really bad idea to compete with them. I'm personally not afraid, but I wondered if anyone had any input on that subject. The things I've heard are that you never want to compete against a company that is smart, fast, and small and 37Signals would be that company. Anyone have any thoughts?