Denis,

[[I've been developping an application over the last year for a vertical market. ... A big company that has already develop solutions for that same vertical market is going to develop an application very similar to the one I've been working on. Now how much should I panic here? Keep in mind that I'm a one man band and that this competitor company has a lot more resources than I.

What should be my next move? Approach that competitor to show them what I did so far hoping that they will make me an interesting offer. Offer that could be to get me to join them or get me to sell them what I did? Should I offer them my services because of all the things that I know so far about that solution?]]

Interesting problem -- you probably don't have much too lose by approaching the competitor, except that I doubt they would buy the source code -- unless they use exactly the same development SW/Framework. Of course I would not give them a working demo!!!!! If you do approach them, contact an Intellectual Property lawyer FIRST in order to find out what mistakes NOT to make in approaching them.

On the other hand, if you believe that the market is big enough for a couple of companies doing the same thing, then you could be OK.

Kevin