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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
> My idea isn't even that novel or anything - it just isn't available as I envision it.
The "secret sauce" reference of the parent comment would seem to be directed specifically at this part. Don't bother to hide that you're making a new kind of (social network for cats|online word processor|whatever your concept is), but don't necessarily share the interesting part until you're ready to show it off.
That's the thing. The thing I'm working on is not difficult technically (its a web application). But it will require lots of local travel on my part (expensive) . If my idea were to get out, someone with the capital ready could easily gain first-mover advantage, which definitely counts.
Same issue here. Designing web app, solo, nights/weekends only, in DFW. t0pj [at] that Y search company [dot] com.
I definitely feel torn between sharing by idea with the world (shouting from the mountain tops) versus keeping my mouth shut, thinking my silence can provide strategic value.
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.
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.
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.
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."
"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.
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.
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.