How real a concern is idea theft by those whom you survey.
I was determined to come up with an idea to develop into an app. Lo and behold, my own industry doesn't have the means to list all of the assets for remarketing to thousands of dealers in the United States. Could this be? I thought. As a dealer of 30 years, I would know about it, because I would be using such a consolidated list of equipment to find just what I need for inventory. Now, I'm not a software developer, yet. But, I'm going to be! So, I asked just a few of my peers in my industry, what they thought of the idea. It's truly unbelievable, that someone else hasn't done this and the last similar manifestation was a newsprint magazine publication years ago. Yet, the daily inventory that I know of is more than a few hundred thousand items and beyond, all within a dealer and wholesaler network.
If people like the idea, even though they don't have a strong concept of what it looks like or perhaps how to make it happen, is there legitimate concern that my idea, or anybody's for that matter, is in jeopardy of theft? Is it really even theft, and what constitutes intellectual property and how does one secure it? I've been pondering the idea that I can't do this alone without input, suggestive strategies and without testing the waters by posing "what if" scenarios to those would be users of my application. I realize this is an area that experienced developer entrepreneurs have answered over time, but I really want to be warned or at least learned on how to handle the concern. As an aside, what if I reach out to people (developer talent) for answers, exposing my idea. I don't think I'm paranoid, but maybe its just the way it is.
"I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own"
Nikola Tesla
More pragmatically, don't waste energy on that. Go and build stuff, it's the only way to be ahead, otherwise you will be, for sure, behind.
Paul Graham wrote a nice piece on that. "Go and build stuff" is tempting but imagine that you work the next months and years on something, investing your time then "go and build" without validating/comparing ideas a bit might trap you in a wrong idea/industry/business model.
Yes. But that's not what the question is about. The need for forms of validation, MVP, and incremental development is another subject :)
That's true. Validation is more about ego, isn't it? If I'm being honest, I wanted at least a couple of my peer to ooh and ah about my "discovery." Now I'm beyond that, having satisfied myself that I just need to make this happen and build it.
yep you are right, my comment is not about OPs q but this I why I replied to you and not to OP. You suggested to just 'go and build stuff' which might not be the best advise, you risk to get trapped and waste months for nothing. Building is easy, investing your time on the right thing is the actual challenge.
re OPs question: there're ways to test and validate ideas without disclosing too much of an idea, not ideal but doable.
I totally agree caution when embarking on the building is granted, and worth pointing that out.
100% agreed. Solid advice.
Even if you only kept it in your head and not spoke a word about it to anyone, it would still get "stolen", and you can't protect it.
If it's worthy, other people would come to the same conclusion.
Your only protection is speed of execution.
Also 99.99% of the people you talk to are not the ones to do and do something about it.
Trying to keep it a secret reduces your progress speed on it.
Better risk the idea steal than put a foot for yourself making it harder for you, you would be your worst enemy, way worse than any 3rd party can be.
Thats really it, isn't it. An idea never acted on is the biggest of failures. The speed of execution protection needs to be my biggest fear and focus. Naturally, just doing it is really where I'm at right now. The common thread that I'm hearing; what I already new, but needed to hear, is execution and building it. I hear it loud and clear. Thanks to all the common sense, really.... everybody.
Idea itself does not have any value- executing is more important. Having an idea of something is good but you still have to check if there is a real business sense inside it.
Key point. ... execution
Late to the party here but I’ve had similar thought but the fact is:
If someone wants to copy you they will do it now or later. Doesnt matter, just keep building
@EKlee64 Check this out - https://climblean.wordpress.com/2018/09/18/idea-protect/
Ideas don’t mean much. Actually making it is everything.
Makes all the sense in the world. Ideas are really like opinions which are like a-holes, the only thing that matters is whether anything comes out of them or not.
Ideas are worthless, even poorly thought out execution is worthless. Google didn't invent the search engine they improved upon it. I wouldn't focus too much attention on defending an idea, I would focus on building a great product people want. The competition will come and when they do, just make sure you are the Google and not the Bing.
Great point about the idea itself being worthless. The end product is all that really matters and how well its received and marketed.