

Ask YC: Would you still apply to YC if - tyohn

Ask YC: Would you still apply to YC if your application could be viewed by anyone?
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pius
Nope.

Some smart people started the meme that ideas are less important than
execution. That statement is very true. Unfortunately, there are too many
cargo culters out there who take bromides like this to the extreme just
because their favorite guru said it.

If you've got something innovative, why in the world would you want to give a
group of entrepreneurial hackers not only your idea but enough about its
execution and strategy to attract investors? Doesn't make a bit of sense to
me.

I can already hear the wags saying, "You must not be very confident in your
ability to execute better than the competition." My preemptive response to
that is that there always exists a group of people who can execute an idea
just as well as you can. Your likelihood of having the dominant implementation
of an idea is based not only on solid execution but luck, relative time to
market, and other factors -- most of which are not served by giving away your
strategy to potential competitors.

Don't get me wrong, I give out ideas all the time, will _talk_ openly about
things that I'm working on within reason, and will _risk_ strategies getting
out when I pitch investors, but that's much different from guaranteeing that
the blueprint to your business will be handed out to your competitors on a
silver platter. That's not wise unless you consider your competitors really
incompetent. I think too highly of my colleagues here to do that. :)

~~~
icky
> Some smart people started the meme that ideas are less important than
> execution.

Ideas _are_ less important than execution, but a head start is a big advantage
in execution (and adoption).

I like to give away ideas that I'd like to see made into products or services,
but that I don't have any interest in implementing myself.

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anaphoric
It depends on the idea one has. For the idea of my company, I would have no
problem making it public. It's based on solving fundamental research problems.
Anyone is welcome to the area if they dare. :-)

If the idea is more about what could make a quick and easy splash on the
Internet, then no way should people give away their ideas. That would be nuts.

A similar thing happens in the research world. Only an idiot shares their
funding proposals will colleagues in the same area who might put in a proposal
before the same board.

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bayareaguy
I have a few ideas on hold until I meet the right people. I'm not really
worred about the real YC crowd because they should all be too busy on their
own startup stuff (and if they aren't then they should be -- get back to
work!). But if I spill the beans here chances are some bright Googler watching
this list could pick it up as their 20% time project and I'd rather not have
that happen just yet.

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webwright
Yep. If I thought a 3 month head start was the major competitive advantage for
my team, I'd go find a day job.

If you think the stuff you write on that application (did someone call it a
"BLUEPRINT"?!) has anything but the most tenuous connection to what your
software/strategy will look like in 3-6 months, you're smoking something.

The problem with secret ideas is that they are secret to your users, too. We
literally got onto TechCrunch with three speculative jpg mockups and barely a
line of code... We were buried with amazing feedback and ideas and fairly
quickly became very smart about the market we were playing in. We got offers
to help. The level of interest was incredibly motivating.

Startup geeks are passionate about THEIR ideas. Not yours. The risk that a
great team is sitting around waiting for an idea is absolutely minuscule
compared to the reward of exploring the market.

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mrtron
My open YC app Jan 08:

    
    
       # of people working on project: 1
       brief summary: todo list
       monetizing plans: none
       reason for site: personal use
       competitors: lots of better products
       other notes: Step 2 of the project is much more exciting than Step 1.
    

By the way, look forward to my site launch and press release congratulating
our team of 20 developers sometime this month. It will be our little secret.

~~~
motoko
Your secret that it took 20 developers to make an online todo list for
yourself with no plans to make money?

~~~
mrtron
Sorry, poorly written comment.

I was implying that I was going to pretend that my work was the work of 20
people to get people more excited about it.

Maybe a rumor that my company received 100 million in funding would do...

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tyohn
When I was younger I would have been worried about someone stealing my idea
but now I think I'd be fine with it.

~~~
daniel-cussen
I have ideas that I wish someone did, just so I could buy their product and
solve problems that annoy me. I used to see new stuff and say to myself, "I
thought of that, why didn't I do it?" Now I say, "I knew there had to be
something like this out there. Awesome; I'll buy it."

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sonink
Yes, because an idea does not make a business. Its just a starting point of
figuring out how to eventually create something useful and build a business
around it. You are not really sharing your strategy/plan of how to build a
business, because essentially if you dont know it yourself how can you put it
down on paper. The hardest part is to create that path of making something
useful over an year or so and its not something you know beforehand.

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iamelgringo
Yes

