Perhaps. Although, stealth mode isn't necessarily driven by a fear of copycats. In many cases it's about hiding the fact that a company doesn't entirely know wh

Perhaps. Although, stealth mode isn't necessarily driven by a fear of copycats. In many cases it's about hiding the fact that a company doesn't entirely know what they're doing while they try to figure things out. This seems to be especially common in B2B markets where there are a relatively small number of potential customers (though each one might pay a lot for the statup's product), and almost all of these customers are likely to learn about the startup very quickly. The stealth mode startup isn't really keeping their ideas secret from potential competitors but rather from potential customers. They want to avoid customers getting confused, being turned off, or losing trust if they were too transparent about what they're working on - and how much its changing - before they're ready to launch.