

Ask HN: Non-signing NDA goes bad? - nchuhoai

I always read that no one (investors) is willing to sign an NDA for simply an idea someone has. This is obviously a concern for a lot of unexperienced or immature entrepreneurs, but I was always wondering, are there any big stories where that worst case happened? Has there ever been anyone who got screwed over? (except the facebook story from The Social Network)
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steventruong
Not that I'm aware of and someone else can chime in otherwise if they know of
such a story but I wanted to respond regardless. Not that this answers your
question in any way but its not just investors that are unwilling to sign an
NDA. This can apply to others as well, particular behind the idea of mainly
protecting the idea itself.

I get why someone feels the need, or rather want, to get someone to sign an
NDA but realize that its not the idea that makes or break the startup but
rather the vision and a million other factors combined. Even with Facebook,
the seed alone isn't what makes Facebook what it is today even if we consider
credibility to some of the original idea helping. That being said, often time,
when people work on an idea, they rarely if ever, are the only ones that came
up with that idea or tackling the same problem, currently or previously.

Beyond that fact, I find that signing an NDA is often useless for the above
scenario because more than likely, even if someone takes an idea and runs with
it, I find it hard to believe some people would go out, seek an attorney, and
hope to win or settle favorably. It's a time consuming and money sinking
process even if there are success cases.

