
Web Biz: How to have 4,000 Users Waiting When You Launch - webwright
http://blog.rescuetime.com/2007/07/05/web-biz-how-to-have-4000-users-waiting-when-you-launch/
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joshwa
I wonder if this strategy makes sense for different kinds of plays-- if you
think your app will be cloned as soon as word gets around, and you need a good
head-start, maybe advertising what you're doing isn't as good an idea?

I have a feeling that's what's motivating many of the stealth-mode startups.

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webwright
Yaw, I dunno. I'm not convinced it's a one-size-fits-all strategy, but I tend
to think that being out there is a lot more valuable than being stealthy.

The "first mover advantage" isn't much of one. Looking at the top 10 internet
properties (by traffic), you don't see a lot of first movers there (people who
were the first in their space). Also consider Walmart, Starbucks, the iPod,
MS... Not a first mover among them. Not that they didn't innovate, but they
were decidedly NOT first.

I don't think worrying about clones is worthwhile. Once you're out there,
you've already got a headstart-- it's unlikely that anyone can beat you to
launch. And if the only defensibility you have is a 6 month head start with a
team of 3, you've got big problems. You win by being the best (and having the
best marketing), not by being first.

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webwright
Not generally one to pimp my own posts, but I thought the numbers might be
interesting to folks.

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darius
Interesting article and interesting website... what tool are you using to
generate the graphs?

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webwright
They are flash graphs that are XML-driven. We pondered CSS graphs (there's a
great Rails helper for 'em here: <http://nubyonrails.com/pages/css_graphs),>
but ultimately went with flash because there was a bit less code and they were
a touch prettier. I still waffle on that particular decision.

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waleedka
Interesting. I just put up a splash Web page for my own startup, but after
reading your post I think I should've done that a long time ago rather than
when I'm close to launching a beta. Thanks for sharing.

