Ask HN: Are you secretive about your non-tech startup?

4 points by rob001 10 years ago | 6 comments

Mentioning and thus promoting your tech startup on HN, social media and your personal tech website/blog is obviously beneficial, as you're essentially promoting your product to your target audience.

However, it's a worry for many people (myself included) that disclosing a non-tech product, which are often much easier to replicate (bingo card creator for example) to a tech audience might encourage unwanted competition.

I'm planning to redesign my personal website and blog more in the near future, and i'm wondering about mentioning my B2B SAAS startup, or whether to partially hide it away in my LinkedIn/Offline CV.

Do you disclose your non-tech businesses on your website/public social media accounts?

phantom_oracle 10 years ago |

If you fear competition, than you probably shouldn't be in the startup game.

Even if someone can replicate your product, they can't replicate your sales/marketing efforts (especially if it is very personal).

This is why your inferior product can sometimes own 80% of a market, either through being first-to-market (with a big enough marketing budget) or cultivating strong relationships with your clients that them walking away from you to a 'better' product would hurt them in the long-run.

Don't feel afraid to share your working product (sharing ideas is a wasted exercise these days - especially when we all have 'great' ideas).

Part of patio11s success with Bingo Card Creator was probably his blogging, not that he has the only "bingo card creator" software out there in the world.

rajacombinator 10 years ago |

Here's my thoughts on this question: http://www.loqqus.com/blog/should-you-tell-anyone-about-your...

Rainymood 10 years ago |

If you can't aggressively market your startup with honesty, then you don't 'believe' in your own product, which is a red flag.

brudgers 10 years ago |

If you care more about what people say than your business's success, it's time to fold the business. Shameless plugging is a valuable skill.

rob001 10 years ago | |

Its nothing to do with what people might say. The issue is another dev seeing your startup and thinking "hmm, maybe I'll do something similar" and then competing against you.

miguelrochefort 10 years ago |

I despise anyone that keeps their startup a secret.