

Ask YC: How long to stay secret? - wheels

How long should you keep what your startup is doing secret?  Until public beta?  Launch?  Do most startups do that intentionally or is it just that they don't bother putting any energy into a public face until there's something to show?
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andr
I went to a startup conference in Boston yesterday (waste of time). There were
quite a few people with nametags that said "Stealth Mode" instead of a company
name. I found it hilarious and with the investor/entrepreneur ratio as bad as
it was, nobody spoke to them.

Get your idea out as soon as you can because people will give you great advice
on how to improve it even before you launch it.

~~~
dangrover
Was it WebInno?

~~~
andr
Yes.

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nostrademons
You should put your general idea out in public as soon as you have it - you'll
get feedback, reality checks, and hopefully encouragement. Oftentimes,
suggestions won't be directly relevant, but will point you to additional areas
you should study to gain a better perspective on what you're doing. And if
_nobody_ cares or understands what you're doing, it's probably a sign that you
should pick a new idea.

You should keep the specifics secret until you have something to show. This is
more to ward off the "Chandler phenomenon" (where you raise unrealistic
expectations which suck all the fun out of development) than to ward off the
"Facebook phenomenon" (where somebody steals your idea and runs with it). In
my experience, the Chandler phenomenon kills many more startups. You don't
really want to be in a position where you've told people your startup will do
X, Y, and Z, and then find that X is useless, Y is unusable, and Z is
technologically impossible.

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pg
You may as well be vague about what you're doing till you launch. Part of the
reason this is excusable is that you should launch very quickly.

~~~
danielrhammond
I feel there is a lot of value in a controlled launch, it takes a lot of
effort and coordination (in most cases) to pull one off successfully. However,
I think there is no good reason to keep your work completely in stealth, you
want to be building up reputation and networking in your respective industry
and you can't do that effectively with a tin foil hat on.

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ericb
When I meet someone who won't tell me what their idea is, usually I've thought
they were a little silly--as if they thought I was a spy who would sell their
idea on some sort of idea black market. Generally, ideas are not viral--you'll
tell someone, and then, frankly, it's not interesting enough for them to pass
it on.

There is a place for secret sauce, it's just that the existence of the startup
and it's business model is not likely to be it. Few attacks succeed as
brilliantly as a surprise attack. If some part of your idea is novel, but
fairly easy replicated, for example the Air's touchpad, I would keep that
under wraps to extend your advantage.

~~~
aggieben
In my case, I'm working nights/weekends --- solo --- on a web application.
What scares me is if I tell too many people what I'm doing, someone who can
put it together faster than I can (smarter, more people, more time, whatever)
and leave me in the dust will obviate my work. I don't consider that stealing.
I just don't want to get beat. My idea isn't even that novel or anything - it
just isn't available as I envision it.

It's a frustrating thing, too, because I think NDAs at this stage are just
silly, and I need to find at least one other person to work on this with me
(preferably local to DFW). But keeping my hand close to my chest is the
natural defensive reaction. It's hard to get over.

~~~
mattrepl
I'm in a similar situation and have the same concern. I've told friends about
the idea and gotten them to try out the prototype, but I haven't done anything
more.

Keeping the idea close is partly out of concern that someone with better
timing will run with it, but also that I don't want to write about how cool it
is until it's stable and complete enough for a public release.

As an aside, am also looking for hackers to join forces with, but in Austin
for the fall.

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delano
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
I'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.

~~~
swombat
I 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.

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dkokelley
As soon as you've got something started, with a decent amount built, I would
start spreading the word. Think about it this way, once you've started, even
if you tell someone intent on stealing all ideas that come their way, you'll
be ahead of them. You can be first.

The only issue now is that someone will come out with something better, which
is always a threat no matter what stage you're in.

Another way to look at it is like this: As soon as you've got a company
started, tell everyone, and tell them what need you're going to fill. You
don't necessarily have to tell them how you plan on doing it, but let them
know it's going to be done. If you're working on a way for people to sort and
manage email overload, tell them. You don't have to tell them "We're using x
algorithm to reduce emails and change the way people view the traditional
inbox."

Bottom line, sell the value as soon as you can, and sell the method as soon as
you have something.

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dpapathanasiou
Just to contradict most of the comments in this thread, a longer stealth
period lessens the chances of this happening:

" _The Marimba Phenomenon ... everybody checks out your code, and it's not
good yet. These people will be permanently convinced that your code is simple
and inadequate, even if you improve it drastically later._ "

(<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/11/02.html>)

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wumi
"release early, release often" --- that used to be just common sense. now,
everybody's immediately trying to woo investors, press, etc. so they want to
make sure everything's nice and pretty.

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andrewparker
While you're in "stealth mode" you're losing valuable opportunities to get
feedback on the execution of your idea. Since execution is so much more
important than an idea alone, I don't see value in being stealthy at any
stage.

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davidw
"It depends", most likely.

