Web Biz: How to have 4,000 Users Waiting When You Launch

Yaw, I dunno. I'm not convinced it's a one-size-fits-all strategy, but I tend to think that being out there is a lot more valuable than being stealthy.

The "first mover advantage" isn't much of one. Looking at the top 10 internet properties (by traffic), you don't see a lot of first movers there (people who were the first in their space). Also consider Walmart, Starbucks, the iPod, MS... Not a first mover among them. Not that they didn't innovate, but they were decidedly NOT first.

I don't think worrying about clones is worthwhile. Once you're out there, you've already got a headstart-- it's unlikely that anyone can beat you to launch. And if the only defensibility you have is a 6 month head start with a team of 3, you've got big problems. You win by being the best (and having the best marketing), not by being first.

They are flash graphs that are XML-driven. We pondered CSS graphs (there's a great Rails helper for 'em here: http://nubyonrails.com/pages/css_graphs), but ultimately went with flash because there was a bit less code and they were a touch prettier. I still waffle on that particular decision.