Mark Fletcher, CEO of Bloglines, thinks that stealth mode can be the the kiss of death for a web start-up:
Stealth mode is when a company is operating in secret for some length of time before launching their product or service. In many industries, creating a new product or service takes significant time and effort. During this time, being in stealth mode may make a lot of sense. But creating a new web service is not rocket science and does not take a lot of time or money. My rule of thumb is that it should take no more than 3 months to go from conception to launch of a new web service. And that’s being generous. I’m speaking from experience here. I developed the first version of ONElist over a period of 3 months, and that was while working a full-time job. I developed the first version of Bloglines in 3 months. By myself. It can be done. And I suck at it! Just ask all the engineers who have had to deal with my code.Why go fast? Many reasons:
- First mover advantage is important.
- There is no such thing as a unique idea. I guarantee that someone else has already thought of your wonderful web service, and is probably way ahead of you. Get over yourself.
- It forces you to focus on the key functionality of the site.
- Being perfect at launch is an impossible (and unnecessary and even probably detrimental) goal, so don’t bother trying to achieve it. Ship early, ship often.
- The sooner you get something out there, the sooner you’ll start getting feedback from users.
via Karl Martino.
Update: Via James Corbett, comes this rant from Russell Beattie that stealthy start-ups don’t suck.
I need to think about it some more, but I think that I come down on Mark’s side.
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