On: Don't Keep Your Startup Idea a Secret

[pg]

A company claiming to be interested in buying Viaweb instead copied us (as well as they could) and went on to be very successful. They didn't kill us, because they were in Japan. But I expect they did make it harder for Yahoo to launch a Japanese version of Store.

[mikesabat → pg]

This is a good example. I'm guessing you didn't only tell them the idea, you opened up your books, detailed plans and possibly even your code.

A potential sale situation is different from taking the first steps on the idea. You had already started building the company.

I think managing the disclosure of sensitive information is a totally different topic (one which I wish I knew a little more about).

[pg → mikesabat]

It was so early that we had no books to open, and they were business guys who would not have understood our code if we'd shown it to them. All we did was explain what we were doing.