They’re Out to Steal Your Idea
Entrepreneurs are often afraid that their idea will be stolen if they tell anyone about it. They hope to prototype their idea before they tell anyone. I was very protective of my first idea, but the first person I shared the idea with was able to tell me about two competitors they had come across that I wasn’t aware of. The second person I told was able to connect me up with someone who was able to help me out with parts of the project.
Two startup failures later, I now know three important things about sharing your idea:
- It is very difficult to get others excited about your idea so much that they’d want to work on it. If you could, you’d be able to get great co-founders onboard.
- You have more to gain than to lose when you share your idea. People always have great feedback and information.
- When you come up with an idea, there are probably 10 others already working on it (Guy Kawasaki). So what, if one more starts working on it?
So don’t be afraid to tell your friends or people you meet about your idea, because chances are they are the key to your success.
Don’t forget to leave comments :)
June 4th, 2009 at 8:45 am
I think you’re right on the track about sharing ideas. The fear that everyone has is someone with more means will come along and implement your idea before you have a chance….
June 4th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Yes. Thats exactly right. Someone with more means will definitely come along and implement the idea anyways. Look at twitvid.io, twitvid.com, yFrog.com videos, and imageshack videos. All 4 services came out in the same week! all doing the exact same thing. And I’m sure non of them had previously talked to steal the idea from each other.
Often certain things we see, do, or read, trigger an idea in our head. You can be certain that someone else got the same trigger, either doing the same thing, or while doing something different.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:14 am
There is a section devoted to this in Gay Kawasaki’s ‘Art of the Start’ where he makes essentially the same argument.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:50 am
Ah, yes, thanks Piotr, that third point actually came from Guy’s book. That sentence had stuck with me, I just couldn’t remember the source, and a google search didn’t return anything useful. I have correctly sourced it now.
June 8th, 2009 at 9:19 am
well said… :) Nowadays when I come across someone who seems protective of their ideas before they have even started working on it, I just start laughing, cause it reminds me of myself 8 years ago! After a couple of struggles to get ideas even one step further, everyone realizes how childish that thinking is… I think the same goes for NDAs… I have given up asking people to sign NDAs it kills any sense of trust and friendship when you so desparately need it to build a good business relationship. Obviously I’m talking about NDA to protect your idea not when you have a Biz running and are worried someone might steal your customer list :)
June 8th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Excellent point about the NDA’s Babak. I was exactly the same first time we were interacting with others on Veodeo.