
 Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret - prakash
http://www.cdixon.org/?p=338
======
jamesbritt
"In terms of the risk of someone stealing your idea, there are at best a
handful of people in the world who might actually drop everything and copy
your idea."

Sure. But what if there are others who are already working on something
similar and, on hearing about your idea, glom some interesting features, or
get motivated to push something out before you do.

I guess I'm skeptical that that there is zero downside to having your
competitors know what you are doing.

~~~
derefr
If you already have "competitors" (that is, if _they_ see _you_ as their
competition), you're past the idea stage. If you don't, then they're as likely
to listen to you as to an anonymous email telling them to do features X, Y,
and Z.

------
vyrotek
I would agree that its important to get feedback from everyone around you.
But, there's something scary about throwing out an idea on Hacker News. The
author mentions that only a handful of people will drop what they're doing and
copy your idea. I would imagine that your odds are a LOT greater around here!
:)

Of course, I'm half kidding here... but I cant be the only one who ever
worried about this.

~~~
alex_c
There has to be a difference between "talking to everyone who will listen" and
"broadcasting your idea to the world". You might want to talk about your idea
to 99% of the people you meet, but specifically avoid 1% for one reason or
another - putting it in front of an anonymous audience makes that control
impossible.

~~~
jacquesm
I've yet to see that come true, ever. I've seen lots of people _try_ to do
that, but invariably types like that will go for the low hanging fruit. Their
heart won't be in it and as soon as the next thing comes by that looks like
less work they'll start chasing that.

Building a business takes dedication and tons of effort, the idea is a minor
part of it all. Sure, you need an idea to get started but if your execution is
excellent it will take a very determined party to try to compete with you.

------
Estragon
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good,
you'll have to ram them down people's throats."

~~~
dotcoma
that's Howard Aiken, for the record.

------
Barnabas
I strongly agree with this post. Summary: you have more to gain in idea
refinements and reality checks than you have to "loose" from competition. Also
NDAs are almost worthless.

~~~
jacquesm
> Also NDAs are almost worthless.

That's so true. It's gotten to be such a formality now that plenty of parties
don't even bother with them any more. In the US maybe less so that in Europe,
but the last NDA I signed is already 2 years ago and it's not like I haven't
done anything in that period.

By the time you need that NDA you probably have other problems to attend to.

------
xexers
I personally sit on the fence here.

It's funny because just a few weeks ago, this article was on HN. Don't these 2
arguments contradict each other?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660720>

~~~
scrod
_Don't these 2 arguments contradict each other?_

Let's get to the real issue here: you seem to be under the impression that
airing a variety of viewpoints is somehow problematic.

~~~
xexers
That's not what I meant. I meant, I am on the fence... here is an article (and
comments) with the opposite viewpoint.

------
jhancock
I mostly agree. There are a few corner cases where this does not apply. I'm
working on a new app right now which I feel there is no value in openly
exposing it prior to launch. Even after launch, I'm only going to market
directly to my end user and not seek wide-scale exposure. I have discussed the
niche I'm going after with a few trusted advisors and that is all I need to
verify I'm thinking straight. Exposing it early may not introduce a copy cat,
but in my case may cause other problems. I know, I'm being a bit mysterious,
but there it is ;).

------
aswanson
I personally think you should share ideas with people if you respect their
ethics and skills.

------
njharman
If your idea is so easy to steal, copy, reproduce that there mere act of
telling someone about it is a threat, then

    
    
        1) Your idea (like all ideas) has minimal value.
        2) Someone else probably has/is/will come up with it independently.  
        3) When you do reveal/launch it and it's worth anything someone with more money/laywers/customers/clout/power/marketing than you will take it anyway.
    

Ideas are nothing. Implementations of ideas maybe something. Good/successful
implementations are hard to reproduce/steal. The article points are about
helping you achieve that good implementation. Something which secrecy hinders.

Also note, that currently for most the world, people with money/power can
generally make ideas not worth stealing via various patent/copyright laws and
the general high cost of litigation.

------
edw519
I kept my idea secret for years because I thought that as soon as someone else
knew it, they would steal it, execute it, and become a billionaire while I'd
be stuck in a cubicle forever.

I thought I was so smart, but looking back, I can't believe I was so stupid.

Once I started sharing my idea (only parts of it at first), I got instant
feedback, what was good, what was stupid, how to improve it, who else to talk
to, etc. You get the idea.

My dream took wings and became my project only after I shared it with others.

~~~
joe_the_user
The funny thing is that would-be novelists have same illusion and face the
same failure - except the ideas of writers don't have to be as original...

------
sammcd
I am starting a new project and have decided to keep quiet about it until I am
a little closer to release. This has challenged my idea of confidentiality a
bit, and I will start revealing more information a bit earlier.

As a side not. I Created a quick sign up page at:
<http://141312.com/launcher>. I find it interesting that most people who have
signed up have marked that they would be willing to sign an NDA for an earlier
beta.

I'm not sure if I will require an NDA, but I plan on using people's
willingness to sign one as an input for that decision.

~~~
lukifer
You might consider using a <http://friendda.org/> instead. It's not likely
you'd actually try to sue one of your beta testers anyway; it's more of a
social gesture than anything, a friendly request to your community asking that
they not talk too much about Fight Club.

------
dzlobin
I'd love to see pg's input on this

~~~
lamby
I'd love to know _your_ input on this more. This whole comments thing isn't
just to kill time before pg decides to pipe up.

