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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
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Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?

Will Someone Steal My Startup Idea?

Wil Schroter

Will Someone Steal My Startup Idea?

The myth of the "stolen startup idea" somehow continues to live on, despite an insane lack of proof to the contrary. The thinking goes that if someone else hears our idea, they will simply take it and create a billion dollar business from it.

On paper (and in movies) that can happen. In reality, it's basically a Sasquatch myth.

Just having an "idea" for something accounts for nothing. Great companies aren't built because someone had an idea for something that no one else thought of — we all have novel ideas.

Great companies are built through an insane amount of dedication and execution that (rarely) leads to a big outcome.

By the way, plenty of people had the idea for a social network — and built them — before Facebook was ever "stolen."

But My Lawyer Said I Need a Non Disclosure Agreement!

Yes, she sure did. But did she mention how we would ever enforce that NDA? Did she explain that 99% of investors won't sign them?

Probably not.

That's because a lawyer's job is to legally protect us, not necessarily guide us into a practical path that may have a perceived risk. That's like our doctor saying that vodka gimlets are healthy (they are, right?)

When Should I Keep an Idea Secret?

There are times when an idea should be kept secret, like when it becomes protectable intellectual property, such as a secret recipe or patent.

Telling people we have a delicious soft drink called "Coca Cola" isn't what we're trying to protect. Telling them how we make it is what we should keep secret — if we have to.

What smart Founders do is separate the high level idea, such as the problem and solution, from the detailed blueprints of how it works or what the go to market strategy might be.

"Secret Ideas" are a Lame Defense

If our idea is so easy to copy and replicate that simply hearing it is enough to unseat us — we're already screwed.

Our defensibility in our idea lies specifically in how we are going to execute the idea, and more importantly whether as a team we’re the most qualified to execute it at all.

There's no need to shout our idea from the rooftops, but there's also no need to pretend we're guarding state secrets. Let's focus on how we build the company, not how we hide the idea.

In Case You Missed It

Why Investors Don’t Sign NDAs. It’s hard enough to get an investor to pick you among hundreds of other deals. Don’t make your life harder by insisting on them signing a document that they don’t need to.

How Much is an Idea Alone Worth? There's some bizarre mythology that's been created in the startup realm that ideas themselves have an incredible monetary value. Spoiler alert: they don’t.

4 Legal Questions Every Startup Should Ask. You will likely invest your heart and soul into your company to make it successful. Don’t undermine all of that hard work by failing to ask the right legal questions from the start.

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Leon Wladislawoski

I have 3 questions. 1. When the idea of a Startup is very novel (in addition that at the point of idea it is not worth anything), it does not exist, but it is easy to copy (in about 6 months of developments), how it is done to be able to tell it to potential investors , developers, consultants and others? The fear that the idea will be copied, is worth enough to try to keep the secret as much as possible. 2. How to get a product using the "Lean Startup" technique, avoiding copying and leaving before us? and 3. To plan to go to market with this novel and relatively easy-to-copy idea, how big is it to go to market?

Reply5 years ago

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