Advice needed: "friend" stole my idea...what to do?

Post by nickb » Thu, Apr 26, 2007, 6:27 PM UTC

litepost wrote: post #34

pissedoff wrote: post #5

Back in Jan I went to a person well respected in the startup community (PG knows her) in BOS. She was a friend of a friend, I've known her for years..she previously had a high profile startup that crashed in the dotcom era. I wanted to bounce the idea off her and get her feedback. So I sent a presentation (marked confidential) and followed up with an hour long chat, which was helpful. She moved to the west coast the…

Trust in karma. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," saith the Lord. :)

Post by zaidf » Thu, Apr 26, 2007, 6:36 PM UTC

natrius wrote: post #35

zaidf wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MySpace succeeded because of great execution. Simple ideas once executed well become great ideas.OP should forget this and continue concentrating on releasing a great product.

MySpace definitely executed well, but no one has a monopoly on good execution. In your original comment, you said that if someone else could execute as well as he could, then there's something wrong with the idea. That's not true. There's a good chance that the poster is already screwed, because the person who stole his idea is probably competent. Just because the idea has been marinating in his head longer doesn't m…

Post by piratechick » Thu, Apr 26, 2007, 6:48 PM UTC

pissedoff wrote: post #59

dawie wrote: post #55

But pissedoff you stole your idea from Reddit/Myspace

Dude, my idea is not a teen site. PirateChick is an ass and put that up!

Post by makeworldbetter » Thu, Apr 26, 2007, 6:51 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #19

jkush wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't help much, but one thing you can do is feel good that you have good ideas. The second thing you can do is launch a competitor immediately. If she's using an outsourcing firm and isn't actually doing the development herself you've got a huge advantage. Use it. I'd be willing to bet that since it was your idea, you have a much better understanding of the problem and how you're solving it than she does. Use that…

I agree: launch a competitor immediately.

Post by mojuba » Thu, Apr 26, 2007, 6:56 PM UTC

webwright wrote: post #33

pissedoff wrote: post #5

Back in Jan I went to a person well respected in the startup community (PG knows her) in BOS. She was a friend of a friend, I've known her for years..she previously had a high profile startup that crashed in the dotcom era. I wanted to bounce the idea off her and get her feedback. So I sent a presentation (marked confidential) and followed up with an hour long chat, which was helpful. She moved to the west coast the…

Ideas ARE worthless. "Here's another way to look at it. If merely telling someone your idea means that it can be ripped off, then you hardly have a defensible product. If secrecy is your main weapon, then it will be hard to find investors. By the way, what happens when you ship? Are you going to ask every customer to sign a nondisclosure too?" And what about your first employees? (quote from an Old Guy Kawasaki Colum…