What is a Stealth Startup?
A stealth startup is a startup company that operates in secrecy mode keeping its true agenda private through various legal means, hence avoiding public attention and announcements about its products.
Reasons that may drive a Startup to operate in Stealth mode (Pros).
Ability to focus on product development without external pressure: A company can focus more on the product development process without facing product breakdowns or any extra financial crisis.
Opportunity to test the market without attracting competitors: By operating in secrecy, a company can be able to learn about the market need and also attain a deeper understanding of the market hence gaining an upper advantage among-st it's competitors.
Ability to delay costly marketing and branding efforts until the product is further developed: Stealthiness helps a company stay off the market hype thus reducing incurring unnecessary costs.
Opportunity to pivot or change direction without the scrutiny of the public: Due to less popularity stealth startups can observe trends from a "safe space" which gives them a clear overview of the market trends and customer demands which gives them the ability to steer their products or services to areas of profits.
While a company operating in stealth mode may seem to have more advantages compared to a public company, it is important to note that it also has some drawbacks. Needless to say, this is something to consider when starting a company.
Reasons to avoid going stealthy when building a startup company (Cons).
Difficulty in building a brand and reputation without a public presence: while trying to avoid the public eye a company may suffer in building its name thus losing a great deal in turning the public into potential customers.
Difficulty in securing funding without a public presence: this goes without saying a company may lose out to acquire funding and may get off to stunt growth.
Risk of losing potential customers or partners who may not be aware of the company's existence.: A company may lose out on loyal customers as they may lack trust in their products due to their lack of visibility.
The impact of Proxycurl on stealth startups.
Proxycurl is a platform that can help you get data about a company or people(employees) that is publicly available. A Startup company may employ the use of Proxycurl peoples API to collect data about its employees' data and be able to spot top talent based on a person's data. And also track the movement of its employees' entrepreneurial talents by accessing their information about their employment status and professional experience.
Proxycurl can be used to collect data about a company about its financial acquisitions, and funding rounds which can be used to identify investment opportunities. you can explore Proxycurl and discover how it can help your company to expose Investment opportunities.
Lastly, by using the Proxycurl companies data set you can be able to identify Stealth companies by observing their history of funding data, and follower count. This data can help Investors be able to spot startups that haven't gone fully public yet and invest in them.
Summary
We looked a the concept of stealth startups, which are companies that operate in secrecy to avoid much public attention about their products. We talked about the good and the bad of such companies both on the company side and the customer part. Finally, we examined the impact Proxycurl could have on a stealth startup in its growth on the financial aspect and the company growth. Read more about stealth startups.