Name: Tamara Sword
Date: Apr 19, 2021
Stealth mode is one of the most powerful strategies at a start-up’s disposal and hey, it sounds cool.
Staying under wraps gives you time to figure out the market, develop your product without the pressure of external marketing - while avoiding the attention of competitors who are likely better resourced than you.
Having worked in tech start-ups for a bunch of years, I have broken down some common misunderstandings and misuses of stealth mode.
1) Stealth mode should only be deployed if you need time to figure out your product and go-to-market. If you’ve done that and raised capital but are still under an invisibility cloak, you’re probably mislabelling poor marketing as ‘stealth’.
2) Stealth mode is only stealth mode if there’s an actual difference between it and whatever comes next. Batman is either Batman (stealthy) or Bruce Wayne (not stealthy). There’s no in between where he’s half-caped, half-suited. Be decisive and come out with a bang.
3) Once you leave stealth, you can’t sneak back in. Some start-ups have tried to re-enter stealth mode having left it. This never ends well. Yes, marketing is scary and no, you can’t avoid it.
4) The first rule of stealth mode is you don’t talk publicly about being in SM. Nothing attracts attention like saying ‘we’re in stealth mode’.
Except perhaps saying ‘I’m Batman’.