To Stealth or not to Stealth

If you have a good unique idea, you'll very likely have to convince people that it's a good idea before they start believing in you / invest in you.

I'd say instead of going stealth, build quickly and evolve. Keep making small changes to your product given user feedback.

Any startup idea evolves a lot. Paypal started off as a way to transmit money between PDAs. Microsoft started off wanting to sell hardware. One of the biggest advantages of not being stealth is that you get a user base who will tell you what they think, and there's a chance they're looking for something slightly different from what you initially thought they were looking for.

There are a few cases where going stealth is worthwhile.

If, for example, there is a competitor already in your space, and you know the market exists, then you have a pretty good idea of what your end product will look like. Maybe then you want to go stealth until you're ready to release.

If you're trying to get a patent or something of the kind, it might also be a good idea to go stealth.

Personally, though, I'm generally against the idea of stealth startups. People who require NDAs before even talking overvalue their idea and generally undervalue their execution. I think a company is 10% idea and 90% execution; being stealth takes away from your execution that matters most.