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What's the advantage of keeping your startup a secret? The only one I can think of is being afraid of people "stealing" your concept. If that's the case, eithe
by delano 19y ago
What's the advantage of keeping your startup a secret?
The only one I can think of is being afraid of people "stealing" your concept. If that's the case, either the business is built around a weak concept or you don't work hard enough.
- wheels 19y agoI'm not particularly afraid of people stealing, you know, Our Revolutionary Idea. I suppose my question is, "Is that why everyone else keeps things secret so long, or is there some better reason?" Most of the YC startups seem to stay in "stealth mode" for a long while.
- jamesbritt 19y agoI suspect the events in "Dreaming in Code" describe many start-ups.
- swombat 19y agoI can answer for my own startup. We're not doing any marketing for it until it's ready (although it's already useable and being used by some early clients), because we want to take the market by surprise. There's a bunch of stodgy old competitors in our niche, and the idea is that by the time they actually hear about us, they'll be hopelessly behind and might as well throw in the towel. In fact, that's already the case - but why tell them? Let them think they still have a business, until we take it from them :-) Daniel Edit: Oh, it's worth pointing out that we're only applying this "stealth" to situations that might leak to our competitors - e.g. talking to people in the industry, or posting on online discussion forums :-) In person, I always explain what we do, without a second thought.
- pius 19y agoIf that's the case, either the business is built around a weak concept or you don't work hard enough. That's a bit of an oversimplification. Contrary to popular Web 2.0 belief, first mover advantage is real in some sectors.