there is no bigger destroyer of creative potential than the misguided decision to persevere. - Eric Ries

We must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.

This is true startup productivity: systematically figuring out the right things to build.

If a competitor can outexecute a startup once the idea is known, the startup is doomed anyway. The reason to build a new team to pursue an idea is that you believe you can accelerate through the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop faster than anyone else can. If that’s true, it makes no difference what the competition knows. If it’s not true, a startup has much bigger problems, and secrecy won’t fix them. Sooner or later, a successful startup will face competition from fast followers.