By Fernando Berrocal

Doing a “Marketing Strategy” for a “Stealth Mode Startup” is something that you can do with some effort. In this blog, we will go over this topic. In summary, there are two good reasons to establish your business or startup in stealth mode, either because you must do it like that or because you have to do it like that.  

‍

‍

‍

‍

Maintaining sensitive Intellectual Property (IP) that is easy to replicate and innovative, as well as protecting your product's reputation while educating skeptics when it’s disruptive, are examples of "must" do it situation. You can do it if you're a successful serial entrepreneur with money and contacts, and it liberates hours or even days to focus on fundraising and product development. 

Stealthy, on the other hand, does not have to imply quietness. If you're pre-funding but have some seed money, you're almost certainly hiring employees. If your product is as excellent as you believe it is, it is likely to be solving a well-known problem that you can communicate. Recruiting and problem priming both enable you to communicate about your startup without shouting it from the rooftops.

Some industries appear to prefer stealth mode over others; for example, we have the following industries: Biotechnology, general healthcare, software/technology, the internet, and mobile sectors all appear to prefer stealth mode. In these industries, an obvious, narrow, or crowded opportunity space, a relatively long product lead time, high technical complexity, and despite the technical difficulty, several potentially successful approaches and innovators all working in the same problem/solution space drive companies to operate in stealth mode.

An unwillingness to have founders' ideas challenged, theories examined, and get market feedback can be the dark, unproductive driver of stealth mode. In conclusion, stealth mode might be necessary, excusable, or a cop-out.

You don't have to miss out on the advantages of sunshine because you choose concealment, whether for all the right reasons or all the wrong ones. Before your product and company see the light of day, you still need to establish consumer awareness, customer connections, customer feedback, attract workers, and create a voice that can lead and persuade your market. What is the not-so-quiet sleight-of-hand? Instead of focusing on your product, talk to your consumers, investors, and talent pool about the problem. You can achieve this by relying on your network while also using digital marketing tools to collect data, generate mailing lists, and build connections. The idea is to rely on problem-focused inbound marketing.

Relationships, Credibility, and Brand are things you need to build:

1. Awareness of the Problem:  The first play is leadership. Make a landing page for the problem space. Write a blog post describing the problem's complexities. Establish an authentic, informed, and engaging voice. There is no need to promote your business as a result.

2. Education: An informational webpage can give details on the problem, its importance, and possible solutions. Trust and credibility are built via balanced explanations of existing solutions. There will be no need to emphasize the flaws of competing approaches if your product truly seems to have an issue to solve.

‍

‍

‍

‍

3. Community:  You may develop a community if you regularly maintain a site like this with current information, opinion pieces, and other types of outreach. Invite site visitors to subscribe to a newsletter and a mailing list to obtain the information they need. You can continue to provide information until you wish to share details about your startup. It's also a fantastic method to release beta versions and collect feedback from the market via surveys and contests after you're out of stealth mode. You'll gain mailing lists, an engaged community that can ultimately generate product awareness, a legion of beta testers, and allies from consumers and possible partners like other bloggers, journalists, and businesses with complementary products.

4. Specifications: Please do not provide product specifications on this website. Once you're out of stealth mode, navigate to the solutions or products tab to discover your product and other related items.

5. Speak Up Softly:  Even in a competitive market, it's doubtful that you'll need to maintain your startup in a cocoon of silence. You may grow your customer base pre-product and even pre-business by employing traditional inbound marketing techniques that focus on your problem space and a little creativity.

Ready to bring your startup to the next level? Apply to MassLight’s next batch. MassLight supplies capital and a dedicated tech team. We take equity in return. Have questions? Refer to our FAQ page.

‍