Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
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Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#2If you’re competing with the big guys and are worried about them stealing your ideas, it’s the same story—it boils down to execution. As Eric Reis says, “If a startup can’t innovate faster than a much larger competitor, stealth isn’t going to make the difference —they’re toast”. It may also be that fear of big companies is overblown: those who have worked for one know that it’s incredibly hard to get a manager at a big company to do something new, even if your goal is to give your ideas away.
I really don't worry that someone will steal my idea(s). I don't think it is stealable. But even if I did, I wouldn't worry that a big company would steal it. As I understand it, Bill Gates got rich doing something IBM basically gave away to him.
The only worry I have about big companies is a paranoid fear that stuff I do on the web might some day get me fired from my current job before I am ready to support myself via my off-hours activities. So I try to not do any of the things that have gotten other people fired from big companies over online activities (like talk trash about the company I work for).
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#3TechCrunch likes to stir the pot and create controversy, but I do get tired of them acting like they do no wrong. Maybe it's just me but I rarely see them mocking themselves. As mentioned in the comments by another entrepreneur:
When I launched OtherInbox at TechCrunch50 in 2008, being “stealth” was a requirement for participation. We had to be launching something new that no one had heard about and secrecy was so important that we were told that we would be kicked out if anything leaked.
Maybe this should be reconsidered for 2010?
However, I do partly agree with the article. Some people are wayy to tight lipped about what they are working on, there's rarely a reason why someone can't speak in generalities about their project without going into exact details.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#4I'm not sure why, but this seems funny to me in light of all the Crunchpad / joojoo shenanigans going on.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#5stealth doesn't mean you don't show your product to anyone, stealth means you don't show your product publicly until you have the bare minimum ready.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#6I think another big factor is that a lot of startups simply might not know exactly what they want to do. They don't say anything to the outside world because they themselves don't know.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#7TechCrunch likes to stir the pot and create controversy, but I do get tired of them acting like they do no wrong. Maybe it's just me but I rarely see them mocking themselves. As mentioned in the comments by another entrepreneur: When I launched OtherInbox at TechCrunch50 in 2008, being “stealth” was a requirement for participation. We had to be launching something new that no one had heard about and secrecy was so im…
Controversy gets attention. I mean, say what you will about it, but I'd like to point out that you did at least look at the article if not read it.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#8TechCrunch likes to stir the pot and create controversy, but I do get tired of them acting like they do no wrong. Maybe it's just me but I rarely see them mocking themselves. As mentioned in the comments by another entrepreneur: When I launched OtherInbox at TechCrunch50 in 2008, being “stealth” was a requirement for participation. We had to be launching something new that no one had heard about and secrecy was so im…
I think you miss how TechCrunch becomes a town square on the weekends with guest posts by contributors. As the comment you cite points out, surely Arrington would disagree with Vivek, at least as far as TC50 is concerned. Perhaps he would tie himself in knots to agree with Vivek aside from the awesomeness that is TC50, but the idea that TechCrunch is just Arrington's voice at this point is a bit off the mark.
And it's not just TechCrunch. Henry Blodget doesn't agree with everything Frommer writes at TBI, Dean and Matt at VentureBeat don't even write about the same stuff, and so on.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#9Being stealth is seriously a detriment most of the time, if not all. Get out there and start getting feedback while meeting awesome people who are interested in what you're doing. You never know who you will be connected with or who will share your passion. You can only meet those people by putting yourself out there. It's not like you have to put your source code, algorithm, and five year road map out there for everyone. Even if you did do that... what are the odds that someone is interested in the same thing, has the same vision, is competent enough to execute on it, and most importantly actually DO IT? The odds are a number somewhere very very close to zero, whereas the odds of putting yourself out there and meeting someone who can help you are very very close to one-hundred.
Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets
#10TechCrunch likes to stir the pot and create controversy, but I do get tired of them acting like they do no wrong. Maybe it's just me but I rarely see them mocking themselves. As mentioned in the comments by another entrepreneur: When I launched OtherInbox at TechCrunch50 in 2008, being “stealth” was a requirement for participation. We had to be launching something new that no one had heard about and secrecy was so im…
That's a sign of a maturing media outlet. Wouldn't it be bizarre if the New York Times never had differing opinion pieces?
(Note: I'm not putting TC and the NYT in the same bucket, but this is a bad point to call them out on.)