Its market timing. Sure you need SOME idea, its necessary but far from sufficient.
Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
51–60 of 93 posts
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#52Common knowledge here on HN and among many startup folks is that ideas are worthless, and only execution counts. If that's the case, why are some startups in stealth mode? Ok, that's asinine, I hope we didn't really say that. Execution is almost always the part where value is created (i.e. where you get paid), that is the hard part. The part where skill is involved. But ideas aren't valueless. In fact the control of…
I disagree.
Search Google for "who will buy my idea". The second result is a short tongue-in-cheek where I offer to buy ideas for $0.02. I get phone calls and emails on a regular basis from people actually wanting to sell ideas. They get to me because no one buys ideas.
The exception? Nuclear secrets maybe. Even then it is not the idea, but rather the schematics, etc.
So, to the original poster's question, why don't stealth mode startups at least put the problem they are solving on their homepage? I think the answer is fear. My take is usually that if it is that easy to replicate then they shouldn't be doing it. If the reason they are doing an easy to replicate product is because they are masters at sales and marketing, then I would think they wouldn't be that afraid of someone out selling them.
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#53I remember reading somewhere that talking about a project you're going to start makes you less likely to work on it, because talking about it is satisfying.
If you go public, you might be less motivated to actually make progress. I've found this to be true for myself, but I can't remember where this idea came from... I wish I had a citation for you.
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#54There are times where going into stealth mode might have its merits, but start-ups where the main concern for revealing their project is "What if someone does it better than us?" are obviously unlikely to be destined for great things.
ReadWriteWeb had a great article on this with this fantastic quote: "I always liked the saying that the early bird gets the worm. However, the second mouse gets the cheese."
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2009/05/first-mover-advant...
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#55There are times when you have a great idea that actually isn't very difficult to execute but will provide huge value.
In those examples, it really isn't worth revealing your idea because someone else will execute before you.
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#56The PR value of launching a complete product can be higher than trickling out iterations on an idea. "Today we're announcing we think we know how to build a faster database" vs. "Today we're announcing we've built a database that benchmarks 10X faster than MySQL" -- which one gets more headlines? Of course you could trickle out ideas and then launch, but that risks being regarded as "old news" when you finally do rel…
You bring up a good point, but is that really the reason most stealth startups choose the stealth route? Isn't it more common due to them not wanting competitors to start working on their idea?
Speaking as the co-founder of a startup that's still in 'stealth mode', this is precisely why we haven't launched yet. We reckon that doing a launch event is a one-of-a-kind stimulus. You can't really launch twice, at least not with the same impact. Just like you can take (too much) funding at too early a stage, you can also launch at too early a stage... we want to make sure that we're at a point where we can capitalize on the momentum of a launch event first.
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#57Ideas may be worthless, but public failure is embarrassing as hell.
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#58It makes sense to stay in stealth mode if you believe that someone else can execute on your idea before you can. For a simple idea (e.g. Foursquare for dating), if your idea gets out, there could be another team who could whip up a prototype in a few weeks, so maybe it's better to stay stealth. For something like RethinkDB, there's little risk in revealing your idea, because it would be very difficult for someone els…
Yes, but if it makes sense to stay in stealth mode for the reasons you outline, doesn't that mean that there is value in the knowledge of what you are working on, i.e. there is value in ideas?
there is value in time. put your ideas out there and the amount of time you have to go to market could possibly be drastically shortened (specifically w/ simple apps that solve a need for non-techies)
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course, once you've answered all those questions you now have more than just an "idea." You have a plan of attack, a strategy, market research, design concepts, historical data, etc. In other words, you actually have something worth protecting. So, are you effectively saying that the answer to the opening question is that startups in stealth mode aren't really protecting ideas, but are protecting the plan of attac…
Well, it think it depends a lot on who's working in the startup. If it's got several founders of other wildly successful companies attached to it, both in terms of board members and actual employees, then the idea by itself may be worth something. The idea has essentially been fully endorsed by some very knowledgeable people who have had success at picking the right ideas in the past. If the startup is run by a bunch…
> honestly I could care less what their ideas are unless they've had some great successes in the past.
That's pretty shallow don't you think?
Re: Ask HN: If ideas are worthless, why are some startups in stealth mode?
#60If you're not marketing to tech people, then you've got nothing to gain and everything to lose by talking about it on places like HN. As usual, I'll give Patrick of Bingo Card Creator as my example. He has been completely transparent with us guys about what he's doing and how he's doing it. We have a complete blueprint for how to compete with him. None of us are going to bother, because it's a very small market oppor…
Is there really any software you can build in hours or days and return vast sums of money? If you have a really specific market, I would imagine even if the software itself was simple, the challenge would be marketing it to that group.