

Ask HN: Where can a person ask for specific startup advice in confidence? - xelfer

I have a startup idea, but very little knowledge on how to implement it. What's the best way to get advice without risking someone else stealing it? General discussion forums are pretty public and are no doubt trawled by people looking for ideas to make money from.
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tjic
> without risking someone else stealing it?

There are tons of good ideas out there.

What there's a shortage of is risk takers willing to work their balls off to
make a good idea into a good company.

Just go ahead and post your idea here. I promise that I'm way too busy with my
own startups to steal it!

~~~
xelfer
Fair enough :)

My idea is a photography album hosting website where you can order prints from
local photo labs in my country. I'm fully aware of smugmug, but i've seen
countless local forum posts asking for one specific to my country in our
currency (not USA based). I was recently laid off, so I thought now would be a
good time to start something up, I believe I have a source for prints. It's
the technology to implement the site which usually confuses me. Do I try and
outsource the creation of the site? (I can code, but not that well, I'm a
sysadmin). Do I use some cloud based service or worry about that when I don't
have enough bandwidth on my current host? Should I write it all myself or use
an existing software package? I think a push in the right direction from these
questions might get me on my way. :) thanks!

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Travis
My company went through this recently.

We listened to the advice of experts (PG, Venturehacks, VCs, etc.) who told us
that nobody cared about your idea. Seriously. Nobody is going to steal your
idea, for the simple reason that it's not original.

Just focus on the execution and strategy. Don't waste your efforts thinking
you have the neatest, coolest idea ever.

Also realize this: if/when you submit to a VC, it's likely that they have
another, similar, company in their portfolio. Are you going to worry about
them sending your idea to a potential competitor? Because no VC will sign an
NDA.

You're going to have to share your idea sooner or later. If it's later, then
you're relying on your competitive advantage being the 6 month head start.
Which isn't really that much of an advantage.

There's enough for you to worry about right now w/o concerning yourself with
secrets.

(note: this doesn't necessarily apply if you're in a biotech industry, or
something that really protects trade secrets. Most IT/web tech startups aren't
like this).

edit: and, if somebody DOES copy your idea, look to it as validation that the
original idea was a good one! Now go out-execute them!

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rubentopo
There's a quote, i don't remember who came up with it but it goes something
like this:

"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas, if they're any good, you'll
have to push it until it sinks in their heads", it's very likely that at first
you'll be the only believer.

~~~
xelfer
Quite true, thanks :)

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tdoggette
People often do that here, with a new username and/or being vague about what
their idea actually is.

If I, tdoggette, was working on something like Twitter, the "Ask HN:" thread
would be "somehandle" asking HN about a startup that takes input from many
users simultaneously and shares it with other users that I'm thinking of
writing in Ruby and have no idea how to monetize.

I'm not advocating it, but it's certainly done.

