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0 pointsRamblingCTO16d ago0 comments

fuck firecrawl. they copied my idea by showing interest in my product and then copied it, used their YC money to give it all out for free. fuck nick in particular. I'm still salty over this

0 comments

xeornet16d ago

"they copied my idea by showing interest in my product and then copied it". What exactly is revolutionary about Firecrawl or your product? Scraping APIs have been around for over a decade.

RamblingCTOOP16d ago

I was the first to return markdown and use reader mode stuff to strip irrelevant stuff. Theres copying and there's talking to the founder sounding interested to have your team copy what I did in the background. One is fair game, the other is a dick head move.

xeornet16d ago

Not sure about the first claim. But yes, talking to the founder, sharing details and having it stolen is not a good look. Sorry that happened to you.

keeda16d ago

I think that is a neat idea and it sucks this happened, but how long before somebody simply saw that feature and replicated it? I'm curious, had you considered a deeper moat than that?

This is especially relevant given AI is making this kind of thing easy at an industrial scale. I think we should all be looking for alternative moats.

1 more reply

neversupervised16d ago

Tell more. Crawling is not a new idea. How did they abuse you?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

xeornet16d ago

"they copied my idea by showing interest in my product and then copied it". What exactly is revolutionary about Firecrawl or your product? Scraping APIs have been around for over a decade.

RamblingCTOOP16d ago

xeornet16d ago

Not sure about the first claim. But yes, talking to the founder, sharing details and having it stolen is not a good look. Sorry that happened to you.

keeda16d ago

I think that is a neat idea and it sucks this happened, but how long before somebody simply saw that feature and replicated it? I'm curious, had you considered a deeper moat than that?

This is especially relevant given AI is making this kind of thing easy at an industrial scale. I think we should all be looking for alternative moats.

1 more reply

neversupervised16d ago

Tell more. Crawling is not a new idea. How did they abuse you?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse