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Are you afraid someone might steal your business idea?
by
Molly Pitburg
If so, how do you handle the fear?
I’m still hoping one day I’ll decide to steal my own ideas and actually build them!!!! 😂
Not really. Most of my ideas already exist and the others require specialized knowledge that I have spent a significant amount of time researching. I would always be careful though when sharing ideas with two specific kinds of people
Otherwise share away.
No because ideas take hundreds if not thousands of hours to build out. You are probably more passionate and even further along with your idea then whoever you share it with and could build it faster and better because of that.
Ideas don't worth much. What matters is the execution.
Often it's needed to share ideas in order to validate them.
I was so maybe ten years ago, but then I learn that by not telling about it, I will never get any validation, and you can never build an audience.
An idea without execution is useless, and most of the time people don't care well enough as you care about your idea to make it to the finish line...
its not about the idea, its all about the execution and passion for that idea.
I used to be, until I saw how many form builder SaaS are out there!
Not really. I would love to share it with someone interested.
I would agree with @cafdc0der, you really shouldn't be too afraid to share your ideas. If you are passionate about the idea and are also planning to bring it to life, then you will most likely need or want help. Not just for the help itself, but also for the journey you are taking as co-founders instead of a solo founder.
I believe that networking and finding people who believe in your idea is a crucial part of building any product or idea. Many of these people will come in handy later on if you stick with the product.
As for someone stealing your idea if you plan to launch it publicly then there will always be copy cats at some point (if there is success), but they will have the same issues you faced and will most likely give up quicker if they don't share the passion for the idea that you have.
For over 10 years while I worked on side projects I was always very secretive about side projects. It wasn’t until I finally listened to a friend who also codes that had been telling me for 5 years that ideas are cheap, that I realized they were right. Ideas are cheap and you shouldn’t worry about people stealing them. If they are not passionate about the idea, they won’t produce a product as good as yours. Quality shows with passion. If you are doing something just to make a buck, it will show.
Some ideas are probably important to be first to market, if the one first to market is seen as the defacto standard. Like for instance I once developed “Groupon” before it existed but we took so long to launch, that Groupon beat us to launch and nobody cared about our product and we were just seen as a copy cat. Other companies like Living Social came out though and they had huge success so I still think there is always room for competition in every case. Most of the time though I would say it doesn’t matter. I usually tell people to read “Getting Real” by 37 signals if they haven’t read it before because it really illustrates well the fact that you can probably copy anyones product on the market and copy what their product does, but just do fewer features and do them better. This requires a lot of thinking and planning before you start coding it. I don’t try to make innovative first to market products anymore, I just take someone else’s product that is tried and tested and already makes good money already and just do something similar, but better. Could be something as simple as a better designed UI and UX experience.
Ideas are cheap, passion and implementation is everything.
You mean, am I afraid that someone will steal my shitty pay & 80 hours weeks for years? Not too concerned, no.
This is exactly about me.
How to get rid of them.
Always share your idea. An idea is just an intangible project… By sharing your idea, the bridge between idea and reality completes. Always share your vision of idea, especially with people who you look up too professionally. Any advice, point of view or criticism will always be worth more than the risk of someone “stealing your idea”…
Yes, I have a few ideas in mind for the future. I just don't tell anyone, or only tell people you trust.
Yes I do by staying quite.