Stealth Mode?

And I’ve been blessed to meet so many early stage startup entrepreneurs, eager to share their vision and get guidance.  Last week I saw a pitch where the founder literally shared a photo of a janky napkin on which he had written his loose idea for a business.  That wasn’t great.  But the point is, people here share and share a like.  And I’m all the way here for it.

Which is why it shocks me every time I hear of a business in “stealth mode”.  Stealth mode is that top secret phase where a business stays completely under wraps before it launches.  Founders make sure to get air tight non disclosure agreements from potential partners and team members.  And then they proceed to tell exactly no one about said business, lest they have to kill said person.

It sounds dope, don’t get me wrong.  And I think each of us at one point or another has gone into stealth mode in our personal or professional lives, not talking about new squishy plans or goals while we give them time to cure.  And really, who doesn’t want to, over casual conversation with a friend, drop the line “I can’t tell you about it yet, we’re still in stealth mode.  But it is going to blow your mind.”

Ok, I don’t because that sounds toolish.  Also I don’t because I generally think it is a mistake to go fully “stealth”.

Why do it? 

Though there are some that go stealth simply to be “that guy”, most people do it because they’re afraid someone will steal their idea.  That might very well be a risk in certain sectors – perhaps certain types of software for which IP protection is weak or unavailable.  But for the most part, I’m so sorry but your idea probably isn’t that novel or amazing that someone is going to steal it.  That sounds harsh, I know.  And I say with no sarcasm that I believe you have the power to create something truly revolutionary, and for the sake of the planet I hope you do!  But look around – when was the last time you saw something so new and amazing and unlike anything you’ve ever seen before?  What you do see, likely, is a host of products and services that are not particularly new, but they are crushing it because of proper execution, marketing and sometimes, just good luck.

So while you aren’t really gaining anything by being in stealth mode, here are 3 things you are missing out on:

1. Free Validation

Who doesn’t love to be told how awesome they are?  No one.  But on the flip, who likes being told they’re “meh”?  No one!  But sadly, negative feedback is essential to success of your new product or service.  And the only way you can get it is if you speak openly with potential users and partners about the features and the problems it solves.  And while you are telling them your vision, make sure you are listening to them and taking notes on the problems they actually want solved.  And if your vision and theirs are not in line, consider retooling.  Or abandoning.  Example:  I told my mentor about a platform I wanted to launch in the beauty space.  I had just come up with it and it was going to be ah-may-zing.  I could hardly get the words out I spoke so fast and excitedly explaining the vision.

“Uh-huh.” She said, pausing.  “How is this better than Yelp?”

And with that I went back to the drawing board.  Though deflating, my willingness to speak openly with her (and her honest feedback) probably saved me about $200K and a wasted year.  And a strained marriage…

2. Getting pitch perfect

With apologies to actual experts in the field of cognition and neuroscience, I’ll explain in crude terms how the brain works.  Brace yourselves.  You’ve got a part that’s good with emotions and ideas (the amygdala).  And then you have another part that’s sweet with words and stuff (your prefrontal cortex).  And the two pieces fit nicely together in your skull (though we’ve all seen some lopsided heads, but I digress) but for some reason most of us have a hard time making them work completely seamlessly together.

A new business is highly emotional.  When you think about your startup you can probably visualize easily the problem it solves and feel the emotion connected with that problem.  You can also see the solution and feel the relief and joy that your solution is going to bring.  Note, if you can’t see or feel any of this stop here and shoot me a note. We need to talk.

But the first time you tried to explain all this to your closest friend (your mom) did the words come out right?  Probably not.  That’s because the ability to communicate a concept is exceedingly complex.  You have to transform that thought and emotion into words before it can go anywhere.  Your idea is Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise (your amygdala).  If you need to send Kirk to another planet (a target customer or investor) you need to beam him there (communication).  First, Kirk’s body gets broken down into its elements (words in your prefrontal cortex) and those elements get beamed (spoken or written) onto some other planet (another person).  Once there, if the right combination of elements isn’t received, poor Kirk can’t get reformed into a thought or emotion.  He just floats around in confusing pieces.   And no one gets why your cat toy review business is as legit as you think it is.

My point is this:  explaining your product or service is an essential skill that requires practice to get right.   And once you come out of stealth mode, you are going to quickly need your customers and investors to get your vision.  You can’t expect that to happen unless you have worked, a lot, on how to break it down into the exact right words.  By going stealth you are missing out on weeks, months or years of free practice.

3. Selling from day 1

Ideally, you will start selling your product or service as soon as it is an idea in your head.  Because the whole point is to put good solutions in people’s hands and hearts.  The longer you sit with your concept without sharing, you are denying potential customers the excitement and joy of your gift.  And you’re denying yourself the pride and motivation that comes from serving a community of people.  Also importantly, early on you need to sell the concept to get advisers, developers and other key supporters, as well as early fans.

Soon after I slapped together my first hand made prototype for the Yubi Touch Brush, I attended a startup event in Columbus.  It was an event where a team of engineers presented on nuts and bolts of product development.  Part of the tradition at this event is every attendee gives a 10 second pitch before the presentation begins.  When the spotlight came around to me, I stood and offered that I was working on a line of innovative makeup tools and that I was hoping to make some connections and learn how to make my dream a reality.  In the audience was a woman who would become my fairy godmother, a PR superstar with connections throughout fashion, beauty and retail.  We connected there only because I was open to share.  The team that ran the presentation eventually became my design team.  And there are folks in the startup community that I run into on a regular basis who check in on my progress and express their excitement.  Their support keeps me going.  Had I been stealth at that time, as early as it was, Yubi would not be where it is today.

Alls I’m saying is, by going stealth you may be missing out on a host of opportunities to improve your idea and yourself as well as opportunities to get deeply involved in your community.  And if you believe as I do that life is about the journey and not the destination, then you’ll get out there and start sharing.

What do you think?