Let them steal your business idea

These questions are posted everywhere: How do I keep someone from stealing my idea? What should I do to keep my idea a secret until I build it?

Easy, I’ll tell you: You don’t. You give them your business idea for free.

Why? Thanks for asking, this is why:

• Your idea is not unique.
• Your idea is not refined.
• Your idea is not valuable until it’s executed.

If you’re in this phase of your entrepreneurial journey, then you’re asking the wrong questions. These questions are a waste of time, and are generally asked by people who 1) will never actually get around the building the idea, and 2) think they deserve 98% equity just because they came up with it.

But I digress. Let’s assume you actually are building this idea and will release it into the public. I argue that giving your idea away for free is the best possible thing you can do.

Tell everyone you know about it. Post it on all of your social media accounts. Even tell another entrepreneur that they should build it!

It’s not really unique

No, really. If you had a great idea, chances are hundreds or thousands of other people have had the exact same idea. There’s a reason we hear the mantra “It’s not the idea, it’s the execution” squawked every time someone brings this up.

Think about it, though: if no one has built it yet, why? Have you really researched the competition to learn about similar solutions? Even (especially) ones that failed?

Besides, no one wants to steal something that hasn’t demonstrated any real success or value. That’s like stealing a free paper from a newsstand. If it’s truly a ‘good’ idea (which may or may not exist), then someone is already building it, or has already built it.

Learn from the thieves

And if someone else does start building it before you, that’s a good thing! It means you actually do have a ‘good’ idea. Here’s the good news: first to market doesn’t always make a leader.

With a competitor building your idea before you, you have a much better vantage point of success. You can see where they fail, where the original idea falls short of it’s promises, and how it can be refined even further.

This saves a lot of work on your part. Because a great idea isn’t built in one shot. A great idea is built on top of a bunch of crappy attempts.

Get feedback early and often

In the worst case, you tell everyone your idea and no one steals it. That’s OK. It just means you need to continue iterating on it and it’s value proposition.

Telling as many people as possible about your idea beforehand lets you to get more feedback. Listen to this feedback! But know how to sort the good criticism from the bullshit.

If you talk to people and your idea doesn’t change, that’s not a good thing. Don’t get too caught up in your first thought, and be open-minded enough to adapt your idea. This is perhaps the hardest, but most important, part of creating a high value product.

Unless your Elon Musk up against Jeff Bezos building a super-secret rocket ship, then don’t worry about someone stealing your idea. Let them steal it! The best thing you can do, right now, is start. Start talking to as many people as possible about your plans. Start building the damn thing already so that if someone does steal your idea, you’ve at least got skin in the game.

One last thing…

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— Cody Reichert, Co-founder at Assertible