Ignore The Competition.
The Competition Isn’t Who You Think It Is
In a recent episode of The Prof G Pod, CEO of Lyft David Risher, absolutely nailed the essence of “competition watching” in my opinion (link to video below!).
It was one of the clearest articulations I’ve heard in a while, and as a fellow Microsoft alum, I could hear echoes of the training baked into us: clarity, focus, and an almost obsessive bias for execution.
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David goes on to lose the script a little bit, later in the interview by talking about the realities of “duopoly” in his industry (scroll down for the link to the episode).
Still.
I’ll give him credit for framing the topic of “competition” that I think every entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, startup founders and other GMs, business unit leaders need to really really pay attention to.
Why Risher’s Take Matters
Under his leadership, Lyft in 2024:
Hit $5.8B in revenue, up 31% year-over-year
Swung to profitability, with $22.8M in net income (vs. a $340M loss in 2023)
Generated $766M in free cash flow, from a $248M loss the year prior.
And he credits it to one thing: customer obsession—both riders and drivers.
But the deeper message was about how he thinks about competition. That mindset shift is where the real leadership lesson lives.
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I write about what I’ve learned as a technology executive over the last 25 years. I’ve helped build startups from inception and scale them. I’ve been acquired. I’ve acquired and invested in companies. I’ve worked at mid-size firms through IPO. I helped scale Data, AI and Analytics businesses at Microsoft and Google.
The below are my thoughts. No one’s paying me to write this—not my employer, not anyone.
Please feel free to comment, share your thoughts. I welcome smart debates. I write this to learn from smart people, regardless of whether they agree with me or not.
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What I’ve Learned About “Competition”
1. Focus on the customer, not the competition
The biggest threat to your business isn’t your rival. It’s irrelevance.
Your competition is NOT your north star—your customers were. Don’t chase the competitor; chase customer value.
TLDR; The lion doesn’t study the gazelle’s gait—it just hunts.
2. Know your unique advantage—and go all in
Don’t try to copy your competitor’s portfolio. Doubled down on YOUR strength.
TLDR; Differentiation isn’t about being better. It’s about being unmistakably you.
3. Use competitors as a mirror—not a blueprint
Yes, awareness of the market is table stakes. But mimicking others? That’s how you blend in. Start with your MRD and ask:
What Do WE Believe?
Where WILL We Play? (And Where Will We NOT PLAY?)
TLDR; Competitive Information is additional data. It doesn’t replace your WHY.
What “Competition” Really Is
You should also remember that “competition” is not always what you think it might be. Sometimes competition is not another player. It’s another approach. That’s why obsessing over another company in your space might not be the best way to gain “competitive insights”.
Finally, one of the reasons why you shouldn’t obsess about "competition” is because it’s a pretty reductive mindset. That’s the trap of a “fixed-pie” mindset, where you assume market size is set and your only choice is to grab more of it.
In Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne show how that framing blinds you to entirely new demand. What if you didn’t have to outfox anyone—because there was no one to beat? What if you could invent a market of your own?
Cirque du Soleil is the poster child. They didn’t try to outdo Ringling Bros.—they reinvented the circus.
By applying the Eliminate-Raise-Reduce-Create grid, they cut out costly animal acts, turned up theatrical storytelling and live music, dialed back traditional sideshow trappings, and forged a whole new fusion of theater and spectacle. The result? Sold-out arenas and a premium ticket price that left old-school circuses in the dust.
This is how the framework could work for you:
Raise: Which features should you amplify above industry norms?
Example: Southwest Airlines doubled down on high frequency and stripped-down fares.
Eliminate: Which costly or outdated practices should you ditch altogether?
Example: Yellow Tail dropped vineyard prestige in favor of easy-drinking varietals.
Reduce: Which aspects can you scale back below the sector’s standard?
Example: Yellow Tail shortened aging cycles to speed production and cut costs.
Create: What completely new elements can you introduce?
Examples: Netflix built on-demand streaming from scratch; Nespresso invented a pod-based espresso ecosystem.
Don’t just swap features with your rivals—reshape the playing field. Once you start asking “What if there was no one to beat?” you’ll unlock opportunities nobody else sees.
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Now What?
Comment Below!
Get Started Today: follow the MRD method here
Watch the full interview video here.
Check out key books covering this topic: Blue Ocean Strategy, Playing To Win and Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.
More Examples
“We don’t spend much time thinking about competitors.” That’s Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev on how they approach competition.
Unless a rival is actively beating them, they stay focused on their own mission. Competitive innovation? It’s not a threat—it’s a data point.
The companies that win aren’t fixated on the competition. They’re obsessed with the customer.
Takeaway:
Competitive moves are inputs, not instructions. The real work is knowing your customer better than anyone else.