Will they steal my idea?
And why this question is not as relevant as you may think
I've been on the startup scene for a few years now. Once in a while I get approached by people, who want to turn their ideas into a startup. I am not an investor, nor do I have a fabulous startup success as of yet (working on it). Since I know a thing or two about startups my friends and friends of friends and random people that find me online ask me all kinds of things about building a startup.
There is this one question however that stands out and that question is:
Will they steal my idea?
Many are apprehensive about telling their idea at first. I understand. It’s fine, they do not need to tell me their idea. There are still things I can help with even without knowing what is it that they want to do that will change the world forever. Sometimes I ask them to describe their idea in general terms without giving away the “secret sauce” (assuming there is any).
To a person with no prior startup experience and who does not know the amount of hard work, sweat and blood that goes into building a success, their idea is the most precious thing they have. It is a lottery ticket that promises to make its owner fabulously well to do and solve world hunger. No wonder these people are so protective of their treasure to even talk about it with anyone. So what ends up happening most of the time is that idea just stays an idea. It is too scary to tell anyone about, what if they steal it?
Let’s take a brief a look at what it takes to build a startup.
The above startup success recipe is not set in stone, but it is hard to imagine to build value without any of the five points described.
Let’s go back to the precious idea of the new entrepreneur. The idea is usually the first step, which means there is still four no’s: no research, no team, no product, and, no money. Anyone who wants to steal it will have to come up with all four, or it is not going anywhere. So who is the new entrepreneur most afraid of? Answers may vary, but let us focus on the investor. Let’s examine how likely it is for the investor to steal an idea.
Ask yourself, why would an investor, who is not emotionally invested in your idea go through all that effort, when on average an investor gets pitched 1–2 ideas a day and only makes a handful of investments a year? (Keep in mind that majority of the ideas that get invested have already matured through the five-point recipe described above).
What new entrepreneurs need to understand is that any idea is only as good as its execution and by itself ideas are cheap. Do ideas get stolen ? They do, but it happens way less often than people worry about.
My advice to the new entrepreneur: don’t be afraid of people stealing your ideas, there are plenty of things to worry about, like: product-market fit, can my team actually build it, what is our go2market strategy, etc. After all, it is execution that counts. Your idea is likely to change along the way and your end product may be very different from what you initially envisioned.
