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I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

grahamwahlberg.com

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Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#141

Post by anonbanker »

tacon wrote: post #136
anonbanker wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had three ideas stolen from me directly, of the 10 or so I have tried in the past 5 years. All three were from people trying to specifically harm me; not from people wanting to run with the idea. All my business plans/documents/etc are released under a GPL license. I consider PDF's to be the binaries, and provide .ODT files on request. I just delay the release a few months so I can get a head start (unless it's…

How do we request your .ODT files? No contact info is visible in your profile.

send a request to legal@medicalcannab.is, and I'll happily provide you with whatever forms you like. :)

Also, know that there is a common misunderstanding that GPL-only organizations must make everything they use public. Should you not know about an application, the licensor is in no way obligated to provide you with a list of the free software it is using internally.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#142

Post by bartread »

danieltillett wrote: post #38
sivers wrote: post #21

Love it. Two years ago I did this, and wrote a little something about it when I started: "Why my code and ideas are public" https://sivers.org/ws I blogged about it to call attention to it for one main reason: I wanted to see if anyone would "steal" the ideas. Because it seems to be many (MANY) people's biggest worry about sharing any ideas: that someone will steal them. See the comments in https://sivers.org/how2hir…

Derek I think you are right about why none of these ideas have been stolen :) As a general rule you don’t have to worry about your ideas being stolen unless you are lucky enough to have a truly brilliant idea [1]. The chance that you have a brilliant idea is very low. 1. By brilliant I mean an idea that checks more than 10 off my list. http://www.tillett.info/2015/08/30/ideas-are-not-cheap/

I'm inclined to agree.

I've seen a couple of instances of idea theft reasonably up close with a previous employer where a couple of companies (that I know about) stole not just the product ideas, but substantially replicated the business model as well.

The key point here is that the theft was of ideas that had already been turned into successful products or businesses in their own right. I've never seen an instance where somebody stole an idea that hadn't already been realised successfully; I'm sure it happens, but I reckon it's pretty rare.

I think unrealised business ideas, even those that turn out to be hugely successful, often don't sound that compelling unless you're personally invested in them already. Hence people don't tend to steal them.

On the other hand, if something is already successful that can significantly derisk, or reduce the perception of risk, involved in attempting it yourself, and therefore might make it more appealing to copy.

So, yes, I agree, where brilliant equates to demonstrably successful.

Obviously if something is too well established, or your potential competitors massively overmatch you in terms of talent or resources, this argument falls apart. There's probably some combination of optimal scale/adoption/market awareness/penetration/maturity, etc., that makes this more viable. In a consolidated market copying would almost certainly be a terrible idea.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#143

Post by cyphar »

cookiecaper wrote: post #55
moron4hire wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty unlikely that such a productive person or company would not have their own ideas on which they are already working. The only people who are interested in stealing ideas are people who don't know anything about building things. Lacking that constructive knowledge means they lack the basic foundation on which to riff ideas.

Not really. I didn't tell anyone "my idea", but several people copied it after my site was released (afaik, we were first of kind). One of them eventually eclipsed us, despite our one year head start, by making extensive use of the owner's existing spam and "SEO" network. Their site was a cheap knockoff, and the product was objectively worse in every meaningful category. The only reason one would use them instead of…

No, you should not get a patent for a "software idea". Software patents are an objective drain on human productivity and innovation.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#144

Post by anotheryou »

danieltillett wrote: post #139
anotheryou wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

social media thing (just assume it's this.cm. Mine is an experiment and I don't plan on making money on): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7¹, 8, 9, 10², 11, 12², 14, 15, 16 ¹ not counted, as I'm not the first mover ² debatable edit: I don't think my Idea is an easy opportunity to make money because of the network effect (which ironically makes tick a few of the points), making it hard to gain critical mass. And It's also hard beca…

I am surprised that you consider a social media opportunity can be bootstrapped (i.e hits point 1). Has there ever been a successful social media company that has not required outside funding? I think I really need to flesh these checklists out more.

As said, this is a research experiment I'm doing, not aiming at necessary success.

Absolute minimum to at least do some qualitative analysis would be 30 active and connected users (my friends that I could talk to) using it for a month or so.

I'm doing it because the problems are hard and interesting. I'm writing my diploma about the general thing.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#145

Post by danieltillett »

anotheryou wrote: post #144
danieltillett wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am surprised that you consider a social media opportunity can be bootstrapped (i.e hits point 1). Has there ever been a successful social media company that has not required outside funding? I think I really need to flesh these checklists out more.

As said, this is a research experiment I'm doing, not aiming at necessary success. Absolute minimum to at least do some qualitative analysis would be 30 active and connected users (my friends that I could talk to) using it for a month or so. I'm doing it because the problems are hard and interesting. I'm writing my diploma about the general thing.

I am not criticising you - I am criticising myself for not making these criteria more explicit. If I had better explained what I meant by 1 for example then you would not have thought that your idea was bootstrapable.

Good luck with the diploma.

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#146

Post by anotheryou »

danieltillett wrote: post #145
anotheryou wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As said, this is a research experiment I'm doing, not aiming at necessary success. Absolute minimum to at least do some qualitative analysis would be 30 active and connected users (my friends that I could talk to) using it for a month or so. I'm doing it because the problems are hard and interesting. I'm writing my diploma about the general thing.

I am not criticising you - I am criticising myself for not making these criteria more explicit. If I had better explained what I meant by 1 for example then you would not have thought that your idea was bootstrapable. Good luck with the diploma.

ah right, thanks :)

Re: I Open-Sourced All My Business Ideas

#147

Post by skevvis »

graham1776 wrote: post #11
peteretep wrote: post #9

I feel like no-one has managed to build a small-business CRM (like his Shoebox CRM) effectively yet. I run a one-person business and I'm still using a colour-coded Excel sheet to try and figure out when I should bug sales prospects.

www.contactually.com has tried pretty hard, but even their UI is too complex. I just need one person to be reminded to reach out to today. And by the way, can you do it for me, Software?

@Graham fair point (BTW I'm the CEO of Contactually). We've made it as simple as possible for now (and our users regularly say that), but we are constantly working to streamline the UI. Any feedback, I'm very easy to reach.
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