31–40 of 74 posts
Although I agree in general, there is a valid ulterior motive to playing the "stealth startup" game, and that is as a marketing strategy to generate buzz prior to launch and drive user adoption on launch day. IMO this is really no different from a "private beta" strategy or "sign up your email pre-launch" strategy. However, the only founders who can generate any real marketing traction on the "stealth startup" play a…
Should I recognize that name?
This is true within reason, be careful about discussing your idea with strangers who have the resources and/or ability to go out and build it. Look no further than Zuckerburg vs The Winklevii to understand this
The article takes a truth and expands it to a generalization that is not correct. The vast majority of ideas their imaginer has conceived are useless, impractical, unrealizable, pointless, trivial, overly complex and/or their proponents incapable of either execution or funding of the idea. So whether it is secret or not does not matter. If you are a recognized leader in your field, you often find you less talented co…
Everything regarding strategy depends on the specifics of the situation. Trying to take something as important as whether you need to be in stealth or not and making as if there is a hard and fast rule gives no help to the aspiring entrepreneur and can be harmful.
We have one self described successful entrepreneur saying very clearly not to worry. As if he's telling someone not to sweat the brand of office copier purchased for the office.
Nevertheless it is also true that theft of ideas happens all the time, and is not limited to startups in any way. Think Microsoft and the Samwer brothers for instance. Little - no innovation, very successful at cloning first movers.
There are some interesting stories in the startup world too: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2009/11/th...
I have seen cases where predatory hustler types have cozied up to entrepreneurs to steal various intangibles: intellectual property, time, publicity, and yes, ideas. Yet this isn't exactly what this article is talking about. I agree with the article in general-- that "stealth mode" is usually unnecessary and isolating and that people simply stealing an idea is pretty rare to non-existent. What's even more rare is som…
> What's even more rare is someone successfully stealing an idea. Usually anyone mediocre enough to want to lift someone else's idea isn't up to execution. That applies when the idea is something genuinely challenging. But what if it's just a specific need felt by a specific group of people that can be fulfilled with a CRUD app. That's a viable business, but the product can be implemented by just about any developer.
Like all grandiose sayings, this one is demonstrably false. Consider the startup we all love to hate, Groupon. Groupon was founded solely on a Big Idea. I think thats why it got so much hate in the beginning, because all it took was that fucking idea and any one of us could have had it. Without Lightbank to hyper-fuel its growth, one of the million knockoffs run by a larger company would have pushed to the fore and d…
They took the expertise they had building that platform - for years - and then applied it to coupons.
There have been a zillion iterations on coupon sites. Some of them probably came close to Groupon's basic model. The idea was not really the main thing.
One exception is if direct competitors get a whiff of your upcoming killer, differentiating feature. A smart competitor will try to cut you off at the pass. For example, they may decide to offer the same thing before you do. Or they may prep their argument to customers & the public as to why your feature isn't good. And it will light a fire under the competitors ass regardless. This is typically relevant to direct co…
The main competitor updated their product and website to list all their new features, clearly inspired directly by my product to the point of even using the same copy in the feature descriptions!
Stealth mode does have some benefits when dealing with smart competition.
Although I agree in general, there is a valid ulterior motive to playing the "stealth startup" game, and that is as a marketing strategy to generate buzz prior to launch and drive user adoption on launch day. IMO this is really no different from a "private beta" strategy or "sign up your email pre-launch" strategy. However, the only founders who can generate any real marketing traction on the "stealth startup" play a…
c.f. Color which failed because it was so underwhelming when it came out of stealth.
Take Groupon. After iterating, they found explosive revenue growth. Everyone knew how rapid the growth was - every deal lists its revenue on the site & they announced massive fundraises. Add that to low barriers to start a competitor, and we had HUNDREDS of Groupon clones in 2010.
Take Uber. Many people think that they're doing well - high ASP, thousands of vigilant customers (thousands took to Twitter to protest Washington DC legislation that would ban Uber). Since each city is a new market to be built from scratch, new entrants have an opportunity to compete, thus Uber has many competitors: Lyft, Hailo, Flywheel, Sidecar, Cabulous, TaxiMagic.
If you're making money, you will get competition. No matter what. So keep that success a secret while you build competitive barriers to own the market.
"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats." -- Howard H. Aiken, designer of the Harvard Mark I computer ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_H._Aiken )
Thats what atansoff was probably thinking when he showed Aiken his prototype!