I bumped into an acquaintance today and, knowing im in the start up space, excitedly told me that he too was embarking on a new business venture of his own. “Ahh this is exciting!!!” I remarked, as a genuinely do love hearing people’s ideas, sharing war stories, hearing the passion that exudes from people before the grind wears the sparkle out of their elevator pitch. “What is it?”
‘I’ll have to get you to sign an NDA first’ he replied
Insert a very blatant eye roll here. Coupled with an exasperated sigh.
This kills me. Every time I hear someone say this (the best ones are the cold outreaches on linked in, asking for your advice, but only if you’ll first sign their NDA….), I just want to take them firmly by the shoulders and shake them.
I don’t though, cause that sort of thing is frowned upon… so I’ll rant here instead.
If every brilliant start up just needed an idea (and one they kept securely under a not-so-secure NDA because really, i mean what were they going to do, sue someone with money they don’t have for stealing their IP for a business that doesn't exist yet but they told them about in a cafe one day…) to be successful, then we’d all be millionaires.
Idea’s are the easy part. Over my Christmas break, I was on the beach with some of my most talented, successful, hardworking, entrepreneurial, status quo disrupting friends (with a combined 6 businesses and 2 successful exits around the towels) and we were in firm agreement that if only there was a ‘place’ we could drop our great ideas off to - filled with executors, do-ers, finishers - so that these germs of an idea could live to see the light of day as successful businesses. A sort of Y-combinator, incubator, hackathon where the ‘ideator’ (can you even call them a founder?) can keep a small chunk of equity but none of the responsibility moving forward, and some executor - searching for that spark of an idea they are passionate about, can go reap the fame and rewards. I would love that, can some finisher go invent that please?
Because we were all painfully aware that ideas weren’t the problem. The time, energy, resources, skills, people to execute them were.
The pain is 100% in the execution.
No one is waiting for you - their friend, acquaintance, lover, bestie, neighbour, co-worker - to come along & share your idea, so they can steal it from you and make it a roaring success while you tell your grand kids you invented Google before Larry stole it off you. People are busy, with their own ideas, their own dreams, their kids school projects, Katy’s sisters daughters Christening... they’re busy. Hopefully, they care enough about you and your passionate idea to give you some feedback, take time to ask some open ended questions, perhaps connect you with someone they know that could help you on your journey, or send you an article they read about a start up in a complimentary space you should talk to.
What we lose by not sharing ideas is exactly this. The broad variety of sounding boards who can offer us a different perspective, their insights, their hundreds of thousands of hours of reading and watching and learning as we do as humans from a different view point. What could possibly be better than that when trying to validate an idea? As broad a range of perspectives as possible? Before you go and quit your job, mortgage your house, and tip your parents life savings in to follow your passion?
In full transparency, I’m not a lawyer (surprise!) and Im not advocating for you to post your intricate algorithms or detailed product wireframes on the net.. But I am saying inherently, I believe people are good - and I’d prefer to err on the side of positivity when it comes to birthing new ideas.
