Stealth mode is a way to to focus on what's important: get the product finished, rather than to have to deal with the outside world. It rarely if ever has to do with keeping the idea secret. First mover advantage is worth protecting too, as well as a change of direction in case your great idea does not work out after more time is invested in implementing it or if you realize there are even greener pastures.
Stealth mode - and secrecy in general - is a tool, but the day you open the doors to your first users the competition will be able to look at what you've made and then the clock to locking up the market is ticking.
This is extra important when it comes to ideas that have network effects.
Isn't what you are protecting in this case the idea? If you just want to focus on building the product you don't need to be in stealth mode. It is only if you are worried about some exploiting your idea do you keep quiet.
It is fairly safe to assume that if you have an idea, so do others. But idea+validation: that's already another step. So you try to protect that combination to stave off the inevitable Samwer brothers clone. And even then, the first three weeks out of the gate had better be longer than it takes to get a clone MVP up and running.
A product that can be cloned in three weeks is not a great product. I thought the samwer brothers just cloned successful companies that already proven in the market?
> I thought the samwer brothers just cloned successful companies that already proven in the market?
Yes, because those are the valuable ideas. From their point of view spending time on unproven ideas is a waste, it is much easier to copy a successful company for a niche market than it is to come up with an entirely new concept for a much broader one.
Stealth mode - and secrecy in general - is a tool, but the day you open the doors to your first users the competition will be able to look at what you've made and then the clock to locking up the market is ticking.
This is extra important when it comes to ideas that have network effects.