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18 Comments

Saw an idea on Twitter - is it wrong to steal it?

I randomly stumbled across this Twitter post the other day, and decided to run with it:

As a result, I've already created this landing page:
https://bail-app.netlify.com/

Still in the early days of creating the app - going to work a bit on the validation and design side of things first. Just looking for some early feedback, particularly on the ethical implications of this...

  1. 3

    Don't feel bad, and don't feel proud, because...

    Ideas are cheap

    Only execution wins. Why? Every team is different, the strategy is different and many more...

    Look at Uber, Lyft, Didi, Grab...

    So, focus on your USP, value proposition, and hustle. Your landing is fun and nice. All the best @chris_davies

  2. 2

    I heard a quote recently that goes something like this:

    The world economy is absolutely massive. There's plenty of room for competing products to exist together and take their own peice of the huge pie.

    In other words, even if you and 20 other people create very similar apps you can still be very successful.

  3. 2

    Ideas doesn't mean much, execution does. How big is the market? Have you validated the idea?

    That being said, we use WhatsApp for it. Either for weekend hangout or headcount for soccer/volleyball game. My friends simply answer by replying "In" or "out".

  4. 2

    I think it's fine. She posted it publicly which means you can take the idea. It's not stealing.

  5. 1

    So I gave the idea a little thought. I was wondering a little tweak would make it better. How about proposing a plan in the first place? Kind of like an invitation. You'd enter a proposal - "Movies after work". Your friends would see a notification "Chris is proposing a movie after work at 7pm. Are you down?". That person then chooses from options like "Yes", "No", "I'll take 30 mins to decide". If they choose "Yes", they can say "No" later. In the meantime, the app would notify again asking them about their decision sometime before 7 pm, providing they said "No" the first time or something. You get the idea.

  6. 1

    There is no, nor should there be, property ownership rights on ideas. To even categorize executing on an idea you think has value that you found online as "theft" I think is a misnomer.

  7. 1

    Taking a slightly different approach to the question, is the idea coming from someone you have some kind of relationship with? There's no ethical problem with building off of someone else's idea in the abstract, but if it's someone you're going to need to cooperate with, you're going to want to be more social about the decision to prevent this from getting thrown back in your face later.

  8. 1

    Nice explanation on the landing page. Go for it!

  9. 1

    👉 Ideas doesn't matter, execution does.

    And btw. I think I've seen something similar for meetings where individuals do not dare to cancel though actually no one really wants that meeting. 🙊

  10. 1

    Really like the idea, it's small and easily executable, go for it!

    Question though, both participants need to agree on using that app and therefore acknowledge that the other potentially want's to cancel. Not sure how you wanna deal with that as it goes against the idea of keeping your friends in the dark. They'll now be in the grey.

  11. 1

    I don't think the poster has any plan to execute the idea. It might challenge your morals, but I don't think it should. Innovation is just a novel implementation of existing ideas after all... Ethically sound IMO. Go for it.

    If you care for early input: I think the data model should just include people's public IDs and dates, so there's no "Sign up to be cancelled on!" onboarding.

  12. 1

    No one owns an idea...

  13. 1

    I would steal it. How are you going to validate it?

  14. 1

    Absolutely okay! And it looks like the twitter thread she was joking?

  15. 1

    No, she can still launch her's, may the best ape win!

    1. 1

      The way I read the tweet, they are asking someone to build it...

  16. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

  17. 1

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

  18. 5

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

    1. 1

      "Ideas are worthless." -- nothing could be farther from the truth. Without ideas/creativity we'd still be in the stone age. It just happens that we live in a world where just having an idea and not having the energy, intellect or resources to execute it won't bring you any money or fame ..

      1. 2

        Not really, the execution of ideas is what led mankind to succeed. Having an Idea es truly worthless if not executed.

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