From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbeat somebody/something to the punchbeat somebody/something to the punchinformal to do or get something before anyone else does Hitachi has beaten its competitors to the punch with its new palmtop. → punch
Examples from the Corpus
beat somebody/something to the punch• Master Yehudi had beaten me to the punch again.• Hitachi has beaten their competition to the punch with a new line of mainframe computers.• Bernie, it might be a good idea if you beat them to the punch. 