31–40 of 114 posts
Well sure, if that's why you were posting. You could ask the same question about being a nice person "What's in it for me?"
But if the goal is to pay to forward in thanks for the help you got along the way, this argument doesn't hold water.
It’s not being an Open Startup that kills your chances. If you have an insurrmountable business advantage (it’s who you know, not what you know) and you keep the how-to details of your solution hidden behind a generic description where the solution is really hard to pull off well, being open only helps you. Firstly, by using idiots who would steal your idea to create buzz in the market for you as they pitch their sil…
Thank you for writing this and sharing this, I was oblivious to all the startups that were doing this and there were quite a lot going by this article.
I think it is unfortunate that companies are deciding not to be open anymore. In a perfect world, do we want organisations to be open? It would mean investment would be easier and less risky, due to transparency.
In the interests of transparency and openness, I share all my ideas and startup ideas in the open with the hope that someone can extend the idea and society can benefit from the ideas. I am up to 700+ computer ideas and 25 startup ideas links on my profile. Society progresses one idea at a time. Somebody invented calculus with an idea.
If openness isn't safe, then we should normalise openness becoming safe and reject actions against open actors or anything that causes openness to not be safe. Reject behaviour that means openness is not safe. For a better world.
I make apps for the App Store, and instead of a startup founder I feel more like an Apple employee, with Apple commanding me around with what I should and cannot do.
Same here. Would be nice to get an Apple salary...
It’s not being an Open Startup that kills your chances. If you have an insurrmountable business advantage (it’s who you know, not what you know) and you keep the how-to details of your solution hidden behind a generic description where the solution is really hard to pull off well, being open only helps you. Firstly, by using idiots who would steal your idea to create buzz in the market for you as they pitch their sil…
I personally find the lack of vaporware from Apple refreshing. With Apple, when you hear about the thing you can go out and buy the thing. From too many companies you hear about cool tech, only to find it disappointing or hobbled a year later when they actually get to release.
0. https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/5/22611234/apple-airpower-wi...
The world is a competitive place and we are seeing some folks lose their innocence. If what you are doing is a real business, then given the choice to protect your business or aspiring to be "open" (but with no benefit, just risk") - you focus on the business. It's really no different than releasing too much of your secret sauce as open source - can only hurt you and is a sign you aren't that mature about what runnin…
I wouldn't say there was no real benefit and only risk to being an "open startup". Sharing what you're doing and how it works is a marketing strategy, pure and simple. Up until recently, it was a low effort, high reward marketing channel to sell to other founders. Now with ruthless competition and the ease of cloning a service, it is becoming low value and even risky.
In the startup world, a lot of trendy ideas get repeated with little/no thought put into their actual risks and benefits for a particular situation. Remember when everyone was certain that feeding their team lunch in the office was the secret to winning? Today the hype is that you don't even want to have an office.
YMMV.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who are you? This may be true but without evidence is sounds like exactly what the OP is complaining about. His LinkedIn doesn't even claim any business building before 2.5 years ago. https://www.linkedin.com/in/damengchen It only claims he built 2 things.
Does it matter?
[1] I'm hoping he'll notice but for everyone else, I pulled this quote from the About page on the website linked from his profile.
It’s not being an Open Startup that kills your chances. If you have an insurrmountable business advantage (it’s who you know, not what you know) and you keep the how-to details of your solution hidden behind a generic description where the solution is really hard to pull off well, being open only helps you. Firstly, by using idiots who would steal your idea to create buzz in the market for you as they pitch their sil…
I personally find the lack of vaporware from Apple refreshing. With Apple, when you hear about the thing you can go out and buy the thing. From too many companies you hear about cool tech, only to find it disappointing or hobbled a year later when they actually get to release.
The world is a competitive place and we are seeing some folks lose their innocence. If what you are doing is a real business, then given the choice to protect your business or aspiring to be "open" (but with no benefit, just risk") - you focus on the business. It's really no different than releasing too much of your secret sauce as open source - can only hurt you and is a sign you aren't that mature about what runnin…
I wouldn't say there was no real benefit and only risk to being an "open startup". Sharing what you're doing and how it works is a marketing strategy, pure and simple. Up until recently, it was a low effort, high reward marketing channel to sell to other founders. Now with ruthless competition and the ease of cloning a service, it is becoming low value and even risky.