Startup Secrets: Should I Hide My Business Idea?

Question: What do you have to say to the entrepreneur who is deathly afraid of their idea being stolen?

Image Credit: Zack Hampton

Answer:

Sahil Lavingia said it best on Twitter, “An entrepreneur not willing to disclose his ideas is like a comedian not willing to tell any jokes.”

Ideas are a dime a dozen; it’s the execution that will set you apart from the rest. Chances are that there are people developing the same thing that you’re working on now. ONE has thousands of competitors, and we welcome the challenge. We plan to compete not by keeping our idea secret, but by building the best possible team and by creating the best solution to the problem we are solving.

If you tell an investor your idea, what are the chances that he or she quits their job to work on pursuing that specific opportunity? (.0001%?) They have probably already heard your idea before, and are more interested with how you plan on executing it, not the idea itself.

Take Kickstarter as an example.. Young entrepreneurs are sharing their ideas with the world to build interest, raise funds, and to get real customers before building it. Do you think they are afraid of people stealing their idea?

Young entrepreneurs should share their idea with as many people as possible. Everyone you share your idea with is a potential investor, partner, or customer. By keeping the idea to yourself, you’re losing out of tens if not hundreds of opportunities by trying to ‘protect’ your idea.

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Cory Levy is the Co-Founder and COO of ONE. ONE is a mobile application that lets you know when there are people right next to you who share your interests. ONE raised millions in venture capital from True Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Ron Conway, and others (making Cory one of the youngest to raise venture capital at the age of 19). In high school, Cory did externships at: TechStars, Union Square Ventures, Founders Fund, and DFJ Mercury.

Cory is also the Creator of the NextGen Conference and Internapalooza. These conferences bring together thousands of the smartest college students in Silicon Valley with experienced entrepreneurs. Previous speakers include: Travis Kalanick (co-founder of Uber), Kevin Hartz (co-founder of Eventbrite), Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPal), Max Levchin (co-founder of PayPal and Affirm), and Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram).

Cory took an absence after studying CS at the University of Illinois to start ONE.

Connect with Cory on Twitter.