Your product is already succeeding. Why do you think open sourcing it will make it more successful? Are you sure you can make an open source project bigger th

Your product is already succeeding. Why do you think open sourcing it will make it more successful? Are you sure you can make an open source project bigger than your company? Why do you think these competitors matter if their own customers are telling you they're shit and you're great? Why does HN matter to your startup? Are you sure it matters to theirs? One simple way to tell - do your competitors get on HN with stories about being a startup/engineer, or is their product itself interesting to HN? If HN isn't the best source of your customers then it shouldn't be a factor in any decisions or marketing/pr. What about these conferences - are they closing deals and making money at these things, or are they just spending on them? How about leveraging their marketing? Let them find unsatisfied customers and poach them straight from hn/twitter/linkedin/facebook/anything you can find.