
Someone Stole My Startup Idea: They Raised Money with My Slides? (2009) - bithavoc
https://steveblank.com/2009/12/07/someone-stole-my-startup-idea-–-part-2-they-raised-money-with-my-slides/
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onion2k
Someone taking your idea is annoying. There's nothing you can do.

Someone taking your deck is copyright infringement. You could sue but you'd
wouldn't win much if you won at all.

Someone using your deck to successfully raise under the pretence that it is
their own work is fraud. If you feel strongly about it you really should
contact the police.

~~~
philpem
At least in the UK that'd get you one of these responses from the police...

"You haven't lost anything, there's nothing to investigate."

"That's a civil matter. You need to get a solicitor."

"Go away or we'll charge you with wasting police time."

~~~
Aromasin
They won't even investigate if you've lost something now. I had my shed
recently broken into, and multiple tools stolen.

Their response was "This isn't an emergency. We don't have the resources to
follow this up. I hope you have home insurance".

~~~
philpem
My local police force won't even answer burglary or theft calls any more. They
have an automated service which gives you a crime reference number over the
phone!

"Press 1 for a burglary crime number... press 2 for a theft from the person,
for example a mobile phone... press 3 for the loss of an item..."

Option nine is "Minor assault against the person".

The non-emergency number (101) just give you the phone number for the
automated service...

Did I mention it's a premium-rate number?

~~~
Aromasin
And yet Hammond thought it was quite appropriate to recently raise the 40% tax
cut-off to £50k [1] giving an average increase of £390 a year to that bracket,
a 1% cut in corporate tax [2], and all the while overall funding for the
police has fallen by about 20% when accounting for interest in the past 8
years [3].

I earn to benefit from these tax cuts, and I still think that decision was
beyond ludicrous - as does everyone else I know who is set to gain from it. It
truly baffles me that we're approaching a period of increasing poverty, where
crime will inevitably rise, and the police are getting gutted like this.

[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/30/budget-
incom...](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/30/budget-income-tax-
cuts-to-overwhelmingly-benefit-the-rich)

[2] [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-
allowan...](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-
corporation-tax/rates-and-allowances-corporation-tax)

[3] [https://fullfact.org/crime/police-funding-england-and-
wales/](https://fullfact.org/crime/police-funding-england-and-wales/)

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factsaresacred
Two great insight:

> _No business plan survives first contact with customers_

> _The real value is finding the product /market fit. That’s not found in a
> set of slides._

Business ideas are useless. They're inert. It's like pointing at a random spot
on a map and declaring "let's dig there for gold".

OK, let's.

A bias towards _action_ is all that counts. And there's no stealing that. It's
either innate or it's cultivated.

\--------------------

Addendum: lifted (stolen?!) from one of the best quotes I've read on business
ideas:

 _This isn’t rocket science and I’d never publicly discuss it if I were
genuinely concerned that humanity was a species of action. It isn’t. I could
guarantee most anyone a pot of gold ten miles from their house, hand them a
map, order them a pizza and turn ‘Lost’ (or whatever the show is today) on TV
for them. Whatdaya think, are they going to hike ten miles or eat pizza?

Yup. Instant gratification, bird in the hand, risk aversion, you name it.
People won’t do SH%T.

So that’s where the opportunity is. Ignore the status quo, realize where the
opportunity for arbitrage lies, and take action. It’s everywhere._

~~~
bryanrasmussen
If indeed the pot of gold is guaranteed, by which I don't mean a verbal
guarantee, I think most people will go to get that gold. But if it is some
sort of mad, mad, mad, mad world scenario
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Mad,_Mad,_Mad,_Mad_Wo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Mad,_Mad,_Mad,_Mad_World)
the smart person might be the one who took the free pizza.

------
dang
Discussed at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=981167](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=981167)

------
raister
I have the feeling that one should be able to copy and use my material at
will. At the end of the day, will he/she be able to deliver on those
promisses? He/She has already copy-paste things around, fact is he/she is a
total looser and will be discovered in time. He/She is the impostor.

~~~
mrob
Or alternatively, it's evidence of the kind of ethics that helps you succeed
in business, and the VCs made the most profitable decision. Consider, e.g.
Steve Jobs scamming Steve Wozniak out of the bonus for Wozniak's Breakout
circuit board design.

~~~
nothanksmydude
I strongly believe there are better ways to achieve success that do not come
at such a complete loss of ethical/moral standards.

I've found the less intelligent someone is, the more likely they are to act
this way. Perhaps an evolutionary defense mechanism. Lacking the ability to
really process things at a 2nd/3rd Order level of thought perhaps frees them
of the guilt that would result from doing such a thing?

~~~
TAForObvReasons
Mark Zuckerberg is a fabulously wealthy and by all accounts intelligent
individual, but many actions like using failed login attempts to access
people's email accounts [1] certainly suggest "a complete loss of
ethical/moral standards". While mediocre success may be possible, history is
riddled with examples of success coming by compromising ethics and morals.

[1] [https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-
hacked-i...](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-hacked-into-
the-harvard-crimson-2010-3)

~~~
nothanksmydude
Give it time. When I meant success, I meant lasting success, not a hit and
run. Given what his company is responsible for, I don't see them lasting
forever.

