Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#31

Post by DanielBMarkham »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #18

To provide some balance, does anyone here have any positive experiences with being in stealth mode? I have one. We launched Twttr in a stealth private beta for at least a few months. I think the period coincided with the period it took to get an official SMS short code. During the stealth period we were serving SMS traffic out of an SMS modem attached to an office laptop. We got the normal benefit of polishing the pr…

Lots of successful startups spend time in stealth mode.

As another commenter pointed out, it's a lot more nuanced than writers want to let on. Writing is about drama and hyperbole. Real life is about finding balance.

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#32

Post by nearestneighbor »

gruseom wrote: post #22
newhouseb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fall largely into the bucket of "if you can give away your idea in one sentence, then you're toast" but I personally break down my projects into three parts: 1. The idea itself in the way you'd present it to the layman 2. The engineering problems you face in implementing the idea 3. The solution to said problems You can come off as being "open" by disclosing only the first part. If another person overhears (1) in y…

Great comment, as is the parent. But I'd question your Google history. PageRank was talked about from the beginning. The list went more like this: 1. Hey everybody, check out this new search engine with a genius algorithm called "PageRank" that returns much more relevant results! 2. ? 3. ? In other words, Google is a prime example of what zaidf is saying. PageRank was a huge marketing hit. Over 10 years later, it's s…

Today's so called "hackers" don't have the stomach or training for anything involving eigenvectors.

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#33

Post by [deleted] »

pg wrote: post #28

The most dangerous part of being in stealth mode for a long time is the long time, not the stealth mode. If you launch fast, as you should, the question of how secretive to be before launching shrinks in importance. Our advice is generally: you can tell people about some of your plans, and others you should keep secret, but above all, transform them into actions as soon as possible.

[deleted]

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#34

Post by gruseom »

nearestneighbor wrote: post #32
gruseom wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great comment, as is the parent. But I'd question your Google history. PageRank was talked about from the beginning. The list went more like this: 1. Hey everybody, check out this new search engine with a genius algorithm called "PageRank" that returns much more relevant results! 2. ? 3. ? In other words, Google is a prime example of what zaidf is saying. PageRank was a huge marketing hit. Over 10 years later, it's s…

Today's so called "hackers" don't have the stomach or training for anything involving eigenvectors.

What nonsense. And would you like them to get off your lawn as well?

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#35

Post by davidmurphy »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #31
tonystubblebine wrote: post #18

To provide some balance, does anyone here have any positive experiences with being in stealth mode? I have one. We launched Twttr in a stealth private beta for at least a few months. I think the period coincided with the period it took to get an official SMS short code. During the stealth period we were serving SMS traffic out of an SMS modem attached to an office laptop. We got the normal benefit of polishing the pr…

Lots of successful startups spend time in stealth mode. As another commenter pointed out, it's a lot more nuanced than writers want to let on. Writing is about drama and hyperbole. Real life is about finding balance.

Personally I like nuanced writing, too, though.

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#36

Post by eru »

joshuabaer wrote: post #30

Most startups aren't an invention like electricity. Many new companies these days are pretty easy to re-create once you have a working model to look at - ie. a less competent programmer can probably recreate your site in less than half the time it takes you to make it the first time. Hopefully you have some other competitive advantages besides just having a good idea. It's those things combined with great execution a…

> Many new companies these days are pretty easy to re-create once you have a working model to look at - ie. a less competent programmer can probably recreate your site in less than half the time it takes you to make it the first time.

I agree about re-creating the site. But not about re-creating the company. You say yourself:

> We had about 200 alpha testers during that time, but our learning accelerated much faster after going public.

You have to re-create this learning experience, too. Otherwise you may be cloning accidental complexity, but miss the spirit.

Re: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets

#37

Post by Mz »

zaidf wrote: post #15

The smartest guys give the illusion that they are very open. But that is only because they have so much to share, they can keep talking(without being boring) and yet not get to the stuff that can really hurt them. That has been my experience. Make no mistake, even the biggest preachers of being open withheld information. I'd like to see a more nuanced discussion about what to share and what not to.

Some thing I made sure to not mention publicly: The exact domain name I planned to buy for several months before getting around to it. Anyone could have bought it and squatted on it if I had mentioned it publicly. Only a few people close to me knew what it was while I developed a new site without having a domain name. I did spend some time wondering if that was really the right name while I worked on developing the site idea and eventually decided it was.

As I have stated here previously, one of my plans is to learn a programming language and write a simulation for my health site. I don't think it can be stolen because it will be rooted in the things I do for my own health -- ie it is rooted in first-hand personal life experience. Even if someone stole the general idea to create a "game" to help people with wellness, I don't think they could really steal my idea to create a game to help people with my diagnosis get healthier. I know plenty of people doing alternative stuff and seeing better than average results. I don't know anyone who has had the kind of results I and my son have had. So I don't think anyone else knows what I know, therefore any other simulation would not contain the mental models I have in my head. Thus, I don't worry about that.

On the other hand, I mostly talk about that plan here and have also mentioned it in passing on a health list for a different type of medical condition. I don't think I have mentioned it on any of the CF lists I belong to. I think it would get point-and-laugh type reactions: "Yeah, sure, you are going to cure my deadly medical condition by having me play a video game. Har-dee-har-har." I also have no idea how long it will take me to implement. I have yet to even learn any code. So that is another reason I am keeping that plan to myself in the communities where a few people might be interested in it. I don't want people to be tired of hearing "empty promises" by the time I actually implement it.

Post reply on HN