Over the past few weeks I have had 3 separate run-ins with companies in “Stealth Mode”. It is worth noting that these companies are all in spaces where their technology is not patentable and they are going to be focusing on consumer internet.

Over the past couple of years I have become extremely turned off of launching a company with this approach. The first thing that has to be realized is that whatever the idea might be, many other people have the exact same idea at the exact same time. It is also a little obnoxious to think that your idea is so good that everyone else will drop whatever they are doing and go after it if they learn about what you are doing. This is nicely summarized in the TechCrunch post – Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets.

In the end, it is much less to do with the idea and a lot more to do with the execution and adaptation of the concept. In order to be successful with this, you need to get feedback from potential customers, experts in the industry and people much smarter than yourself. When operating in stealth mode you miss out on all of these opportunities.

When I started working in this field I was worried that I wasn’t an “Idea Guy”. I don’t worry anymore as I have quickly realized that the idea is the easiest part in starting and building a disruptive company. Most who don’t have the means or ability to execute on their ideas don’t, and those who can execute normally end up adapting the original idea anyways.

That brings us to NDA’s. First a disclaimer; if you have a patentable technology where most of the value of the company will reside in this IP, then yes, you should look at putting an NDA in place. For the other 98% of technology startups, don’t bother with it.

When I meet an entrepreneur who throws an NDA down before saying hello three thoughts immediately cross my mind;

1. They haven’t started a company before.
2. They are not near as smart as they think they are.
3. They won’t trust or listen to anyone.

I agree with Matt Mireles on this one: “As they say, you want missionaries, not mercenaries.”

We have all heard about the Facebook vs. UConnect fiasco. However, unless you think you have the next Google or Facebook, you should probably skip the stealth mode and NDA and drastically increase your chances of not completely failing on your new “idea”.