Except "go open source" (which is very questionable!) most startups do: -- launch at big confs or through popular blogs like techcrunch, which is essentially t

Except "go open source" (which is very questionable!) most startups do: -- launch at big confs or through popular blogs like techcrunch, which is essentially the same. -- stealth development. -- launch with features previously unseen on the market (there's no much sense in carbon copying your competitors). -- mashups and buildups on google maps, facebooks, etc. I can continue... So basically that Zimbra guy did not discover America. All his advices are obvious and are iteratively being tried by many startups without any success. Here, I believe, the real reason for his success ($350M sold-out to Yahoo) was pure luck + plus something he will never start word-spreading about publicly.