

Ask HN: How quiet should one keep ideas? - pwhelan

How quiet should one keep their ideas when thinking about potential ventures? There certainly is potential for gain by discussing things with others, however there is potential for loss as well. ConnectU and Facebook have been in the press recently and who knows what those 3 lost when Zuckerberg went forth with Facebook?<p>Would the area of the idea matter? (eg some web 2.0 apps are easy to clone and being early might make a huge difference compared to making luxury furniture that requries expert woodworkers<p>Is this event the right question to be asking? I would be interested to see the differences, if any, in opinion between those who have started multiple ventures, one venture, and no ventures.
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jwegan
I think the common consensus of successful entrepreneurs, VCs, etc is that
ideas are cheap and it is execution that matters.

Part of the problem with ConnectU is they didn't have an ability to execute
their ideas themselves and when they recruited Zuckerberg he was like why am I
executing their idea for them and letting them reap the profits? ConnectU
didn't fail because they shared their idea. They failed because the executed
poorly by not drawing up a contract with the person that was going to be
working for them.

I personally believe that you should share ideas with people you trust to get
feedback. Then build a v0.1 prototype that you can launch and start getting
feedback and improving it.

~~~
gosuri
Thumbs up for that.

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gfodor
There are always multiple parts to an idea. You can often share some of the
idea to get feedback while not sharing all of it.

Some things to consider withholding are long-term goals, tricky algorithms,
novel monetization strategies, and markets you've researched and have
confidence are under-served.

It essential you safely expose as much of the idea and the work you do as
early as possible so you can learn. But don't let anyone tell you that ideas
are worthless or that there aren't people who will profit from good ideas that
spill out. There is a reason, after all, that we have a patent system. "Ideas
are worthless, its all in the execution" is as much a lie as "execution
doesn't matter."

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gosuri
I'm going to have to repeat "Ideas are worthless without execution". Current
technologies lets you turn your idea to a product and launch in a very short
period of time.

I'm not sure if you are aware of "Lean Startup" methodology but strongly
recommend you get aquatinted with some of the principles. Web 2.0 companies
like Dropbox, IMVU, Aardvark, KISSMetrics etc have applied these techniques to
be successful.

You don't necessarlity need to share your idea with anyone but SHOULD build it
and launch as soon as possible, your goal in the first month should not be to
get lots of users but validate your hypothesis and collect data on usage (like
if your users like your offering and wanting to come back)

I posted this comment on a different thread but re-posting here:

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

We launched a product recently <http://sociaholic.com> and applied lean
startup principles.

Problem Hypothesis: The existing Twitter to Facebook integrations and apps
don't preview links/videos when publishing to Facebook from Twitter, thus by
limiting the desirability to click on a link on facebook pages.

Execution: Design to launch along with a video in less than 2 weeks, the goal
was to validate our solution has a market. We update your facebook page from
twitter in nice way (previewing links, converting @handles, etc)

Validation: Our first week: Over 200 active users out of ~250 signups,
conversion rate (homepage to adding twitter account) ~30%. 2% dissatisfied
customers (5 out 250 people uninstalled) The product has a much bigger vision
and Customer Development is doing wonders and we plan to do this for every
step we move forward.

~~~
pwhelan
I am not versed in the Lean Startup methodology, but I will be doing some
reading soon (but after work/gym). I like the concept of "validate your
hypothesis" first.

Design to launch in 2 weeks is impressive. It makes me feel like I should set
more stringent goals with my projects and reading.

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subpixel
Keep your idea to yourself, make some actual progress toward making the idea
real, then share the initial results with the people whose input you want.
Rinse and repeat.

<http://sivers.org/zipit>

~~~
jwegan
Maybe someone should have showed the Diaspora guys that article.

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jacquesm
Chances are someone else if having the same idea as you do. And is talking to
others, getting feedback, correcting problems before they arise.

That someone will eat you for lunch.

Another reason to talk about 'good ideas' is that sometimes they're not that
good, you just don't know it. Finding out early because of conversations with
others will help you focus your efforts on those things that _really_ stand
out.

Collaboration is essential for success, ideas can be born in a vacuum but it
will need a lot of effort to bring one to market in a way that you can make a
profit on them.

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fabiandesimone
I think ideas are worthless (ok, not completely) but,

The true important thing is execution. And is VERY hard to get it right.

~~~
kimfuh
execute what?

