
Random Rant On Stealth-Mode Startups (no hard feelings) - JMiao

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JMiao
Off topic, but gosh do I dislike the whole "stealth mode" classification. Now,
I completely understand if some details need to stay under the rug for the
time being, but the terminology makes everything seem so ___important_ __,
like when people "promise" that their social network will be "different"
because it's got the "secret sauce."

"It's Facebook, but with the Secret Sauce!" they proclaim. Who knows, this
could be similar to saying, "It's Fillet Mignon, but with the Secret Sauce!"

Did it ever occur to you that I may not want my Fillet Mignon with "Secret
Sauce?"

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vlad
I think the best way to pull off stealth mode is to create something that
makes money right away but has a secondary goal that will be hard for somebody
else to guess, that you're already developing behind the scenes. That way, you
have something to show people and take credit for, while also working on new
features. I think that's the best way to have a cake and eat it, too.

Of course, it's good that people don't talk about their services because of
course I'm going to drop what I'm doing and start doing their idea from
scratch. ;) But the most annoying thing is when one person asked me what I did
and then said "Stealth mode" and walked away. I thought, why the heck are you
asking people if you don't tell them what you're doing! Unless, maybe it was
something very similar to what I was doing. :)

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JMiao
I'm not actually arguing against secrecy, I just dislike the name "stealth-
mode." The cheese factor in my book is on par with dolling out names like
"CEO" and "CFO" in a startup before you have a product (or idea of a problem
you want to solve) and money to even count. What does a CFO do when there's no
revenue? Do you really need to call the guy who gets you blog coverage the
"Chief Marketing Officer?" I have no idea, but I keep bumping into startups
around the valley that epitomize this.

What's annoying is that too many people take themselves way too seriously.

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dfranke
Well, I think it makes sense to start out with the titles CEO and CTO, at
least. Feel free to substitute "the Jobs" and "the Woz" if those sound too
stuffy.

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BitGeek
I feel the same way-- when you see job postings for "Stealth mode startup", or
otherwise people use it to try and add an air of intrigue to what they are
doing-- it's extremely cheesy.

It was cool for transmeta, but immediately after it became cheesy.

On the other hand, when you have an idea, or a solution, and you're evaluating
it, and trying to determine what the market is, what technological solutions
are needed, or even if it is viable, you don't want to start talking about
what you're doing too soon.

Not because your idea is super secret-- but because your idea is evolving
every week. If you're doing a social network (And by the way, if your social
network doesn't already have 1M members right now, please stop and find
something interesting to work on-- you already missed the party)... but your
niche is changing each week- one week it is cat owners, next week it is ferret
owners-- you don't want to talk about it and sound like a goofball who is a
member of the "get-rich-quick-scheme-of-the-week" club.

If you're really in stealth mode, you won't ever use the phrase "stealth
mode". You would simply not talk about it.

However, when talking to friends who know I'm working on something, it would
be nice if there was a phrase to use that says "it is too early to talk about
right now, but I'm not trying to be pretentious."

Maybe just "early stage" is the phrase to use.

As for titles, I always hated the CxO titles-- they say to me "these are
titles we give to MBA idiots cause they insist that their air of pomposity be
respected, but secretly we know anyone with this title is an clueless and not
worth spending time with at parties."

Personally, I'm going with founder. It is way too early to come up with a job
title to specify exactly what my responsibilities are-- if it isn't done yet,
it is my responsibility!

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pg
All "stealth mode" means is that a company exists but hasn't launched yet, and
doesn't want to talk about what they're doing. It doesn't mean they don't
know; in fact, odds are they're comically overspecific about what they plan to
do.

Though the phrase is a bit silly, most startups spend some time in this state.
Maybe the reason the phrase has a bad odor is that the longer you spend in
this state, the less likely you are to succeed.

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jaggederest
What bothers me is that people think their ideas are so goddamn important that
they need to be stealthy. Hell, the fact that you're doing it is usually
reason enough not to start (N+1 companies vs N companies)

~~~
omouse
Or they have no idea => <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=12878>

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sharpshoot
stealth mode is synomymous with "we haven't quite figured out what we are
doing yet". I've been there and seen others too - thats what it means!

