Why young tech startups should compete and not collaborate

Technology has improved over time. It’s no longer how it used to be. Loads and loads of ideas are being generated on a daily. Whilst most young startups have role models and mentors, a whole bunch of them are working tirelessly and privately to ensure the continuous run of their brands and ideas.

Thing is, most of these supposed mentors do not intentionally share with the younger generation, all of the technical knowledge they have harnessed over the years. There is usually certain information that is being withheld, which would have been beneficial to these startups.

Know why? They understand what real competition is. They know the importance of keeping specific information that could be regarded as “key ingredients”, targeted at the success of their company. Take Amazon, for instance, they possess special company structures that offer a unique service to their consumers. This has helped them maintain the status of being the biggest tech company in the world.

Here’s what to know about competing. Everyone withholds something. Mentors to tech startups may be transparent, but they do not go all the way. If everyone offered the secrets to their flourishing companies, then they wouldn’t be there for a long time. Therefore, the quicker young tech entrepreneurs realize that they too have to do more absorbing and less giving out all in the name of collaboration, the better and higher they can soar.

You must have heard the statement – “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with a team”. Besides the increasing number of accomplishments that comes with sharing ideas and working with a group of people, collaborating also offers you an endless range of ideas to choose from, without jeopardizing the entire structure.

However, realizing that there is a need for collaboration should make you understand that there was competition in the first place, especially in the same industry. For most people, competition helps them to be better. It offers them a wide room to do an in-house assessment, and determine what they could do better. Even during collaborations, most individuals are usually very conscious about the kind of information they are willing to let out.

“Competition makes us faster. Collaboration makes us better; Competitive-collaboration makes us faster in a better way. Ultimately, individual competitive efforts, housed in an umbrella of collaboration foster innovation, growth, personal-team motivation, as well as the discouragement of complacency”.