Where to draw the line

Being open is great. As you share more about your company, your application and yourself, you let the potential customers have a glimpse of what, how and who is actually behind the software they are supposed to buy or the website they are supposed to use. The more information they have, the more likely they are to trust you enough with their money.

But what if you don't have the application already? What if you're developing it?

Eric Sink recommends in his book "The business of software" that you should blog about it, let people know you're doing it. The argument is that when you release your application, you would already have potential customers, early adopters to beta-test it, download it, play with it or just spread the word about it. The idea in itself is a fantastic one. It promises a smooth transition from development into production whereby your customers magically know everything and trust you from day 1.

But where to draw the line? How much should you be sharing and how much should be keeping to yourself?

The argument for sharing being the one above, the argument for "keeping to yourself" needs no introduction. It's the most natural thing to keep your ideas to yourself, afraid that some mysterious competitors you know nothing about might steal it from you and implement it and bring it to market before you. It's the traditional way of doing business and it's what NDAs and other confidentiality agreements were invented for.

The transition to an open model is not an easy one. You have to balance the benefits of communicating with the early adopters and spreading the word early with the scare of losing your business to a smart competitor lurking amidst your readers.

I don't know the answer and I don't believe there are easy answers here.

What my intuition is telling me is that it should be a gradual process. You start with general information and you narrow down to specifics as your development approaches the end and your product is ready for the market. And this is what I am going to do. I am slowly and gradually going to share more about my application and the development effort. I am also hoping to build a sort of curiosity in the readers and hopefully that will keep them coming back and reading more about the progress. And hopefully some of them might even be curious enough to download a beta version and give it a try.

The whole process of writing this blog is supposed to provide a better insight into how and where to draw the line between sharing information about yourself and also safeguarding your idea.