Ask HN: Should you bother hiding your website's secret sauce? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should you bother hiding your website's secret sauce?

8 pointsentangld14 comments

I'm looking for a cofounder, so I end up explaining my project to a lot of people. People wonder how I will accomplish it, but it only becomes obvious after I explain it (or show the demo)... I hear "Ohhhh... or that's interesting" and that freaks me out. I feel like I just gave it away.

I know I sound like every other paranoid freak, but I'm learning as I'm building so it's very slow. And I'm sure someone else could build it while I'm still looking things up.

Wracking your brain over nonsense like this comes with the territory, but I'll take any advice I can get.

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The way I've heard successful start up types describe this is issue is like so.

Keeping your idea a secret is only going to hurt you and the project because it doesn't have the opportunity to grow with the criticisms of potential users and people who think differently than yourself. So in general you should talk to people about your idea.

That is unless, your 'secret sauce' is something on the order of Tungsten being the secret to light bulb filaments. That you would want to keep a secret.

I tend to agree with this assessment.

When I invent something this is exactly what I do. I have no problem explaining everything up to the 'key' that no one else would be able to replicate without me explaining/showing them.

Even then I have no problem telling them 'the secret sauce'... I just don't show them how it works or how to do it.

Now you also have a type of secret sauce called operational knowledge. For example I know how to take an idea, prototype it, and produce it in days. I could explain to someone exactly how to do it and they would still fail because you need the experience and breath of knowledge. In those cases I rarely hold anything back, unless it involves a piece of equipment/technology I've designed that revolutionizes a process.

Despite the fact that Operational Knowledge can be hard to replicate with the efficiency of someone who has more experience. I find talking to more senior engineers about their development process (or even just pair programming with them) to be very insightful.

Even if it's just a matter of how they have their key bindings set, terminal aliases, window management, testing integrating, etc. Stuff like that is nice to pick off of people who have honed it over some time.

Sorry, I was referring more to manufacturing,production, and logistics knowledge. Most of my experience revolves around combining software with physical products, working with partners around the world to get them to a stores shelves. Since there are only a hand full of people with the breath of knowledge to design, prototype, and manage every step combining both software and the physical I tend not to worry.

If keeping it secret is that big of deal it's probably going to fail anyway. If something is so easy to copy that you can't tell anyone then it's not worth pursuing. IMO.

That's a legitimate argument, but you could say Groupon was pretty easy to copy.

Like magic tricks, the magician is like the first one to discover an idea is possible... I mean in general. I'm not calling mine magical.

Right. So Groupon probably didn't go around hush hush. I agree with the post above about execution. It's not about being first it's about being the best.

Groupon -is- very easy to copy, hence the hundreds of Groupon clones making money hand over fist.

However, even with the clones, Groupon seems to be doing just fine.

I knew there were hundreds of clones but didnt know they were making cash hand over first. Any operating in a country that groupon operates in you can point me to? Just interested.

I chatted with some of the groupon guys a short while ago and was shocked by just how much cash they spend on aquiring business. I wonder how many groupon type companies a city can hold, and for how long?

By acquiring business you mean acquiring users? Acquiring companies that will offer deals on them? Interested.

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

- Howard Aiken

http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

For me, execution is everything. Knowing an idea alone is nothing compared to knowing what to exactly do with the idea.

Well said. Everyone has great ideas but its entirely the execution of a TEAM that will make or break a huge idea. Struggling with telling people your baby is certainly hard but recognize most people just want to help you. All good ideas will be replicated, its just how do you make yourself hard to imitate thats going to separate you from the rest.

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