Found out that my idea already exists. Should I continue?

The fact that something already exists should not discourage you from jumping in as well. Many successful companies (e.g. Groove) started in a market where there were already many players.

However, if the company has been there for 6 years and their name is synonym of the service that you want to offer, you need to know that it will be almost impossible to get big traction. That coupled with the fact that your team is not totally in, it doesn't look to good.

If you still want to give it a try, you need to differentiate yourself. And by that, I don't mean offering one or two more features. You need to address a different segment of the customer base and that segment need to be big enough to sustain your future business. You need to produce a product that solves a real problem for pet lovers. Nice to have almost never make successful products.

So go back to the drawing board and if you can't differentiate yourself enough, than maybe you should also think about going for another business. Do your homework right this time. If that company was there for 6 years and it took you 6 months to find out, that means that you didn't do your homework right the first time.

Good luck!

If you think your idea is already out there, you should determine whether the other party has filed patent applications or if they have granted patents (to start, check www.uspto.gov). If the other party has an issued patent (not just a patent application but a granted or issued patent), you will need to figure out whether what you are doing is covered by the claims of the granted or issued patent to avoid possible infringement. I would be less worried about a competitor, and more worried about any intellectual property they might have. After all, you can always build a better business if you have the freedom to do so.

You should be happy for the fact that another player exists, that already validates your market for you.

No market can ever be a monopoly. Even if you have a first mover advantage, similar businesses are going to come up and compete so don't worry. You compete for market share.

Launch your app and as the person above perfectly says, differentiate.

Good luck.

Stop not because an app exists — that's a partially good thing.

Stop because: 1) "...my team is torn apart and they all gave up, except for me. I still try to keep working on the idea, and I am working with a small team from overseas." and 2) "I’m a non-technical founder"

Non-tech founders are fine, just not in this case if you cannot get a product out the door.

Next startup add both <em>Competitive Analysis</em> and <em>Market Validation</em> to the beginning of your process.

Finding competitors means there's a market (good). Define your differentiators when going through this process.

Yes. And make it better.