Stefano Bernardi offers some advice to those who want to follow the way of the Samwers Brothers and build businesses by copying successful US startups in their country:
Please do not clone Pinterest. Do not clone Instagram. It will not work. Not matter what Pinspire and co. want you to believe. Cloning social startups is extremely hard as you face the same growth problems of the American startup, in a market with fewer early adopters and many more monetization challenges.
Instead, clone startups that have one of these characteristics:
- Highly regulated markets (e.g. payments);
- Deeply local startups (e.g. ways to connect you to local businesses);
- E-commerce niches that are still empty in your country;
- B2B startups.
Interesting article. Read more here.