Applying to YC is a bet that this statement is not true in general. Or that they invest in great teams with ideas that they do not fully appreciate.
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." (Howard Aiken) Is this true?
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Re: "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." (Howard Aiken) Is this true?
#12This entry asks a yes/no question, when there is no yes/no answer.
If you read the TechCrunch comments on FreeBase, there are a couple of people who say they had the exact same idea -- one even reserved "ifreebase.com." The idea is definitely not new. Facebook wasn't entirely novel either. There are a lot of factors that can make a good idea unprofitable, or a so-so idea a big hit (who knew what AJAX was before it was called "AJAX"?).
So, yes, your idea may be stolen if it's good. If your idea is obvious, there is a chance that people are just too lazy to implement it. The only way to win in either case, is to work damn hard on your idea until fruitition.
Re: "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." (Howard Aiken) Is this true?
#13It's certainly true for my startup. I've been advertising my ideas for years, hoping someone else would do all the work, but in desperation I'm now building a company to produce the software I was hoping someone else would make. Look at Google -- they tried to sell their algorithm so they could stay in school, but no one was interested, so they had to put up or shut up. If a bunch of people already thought your idea…
'... if a bunch of people already thought your idea was a good idea, it'd effectively be a mature space. ...'
I'd modify that slightly...
'people already thought your idea was a good (MONEY SPINNER) idea , it'd effectively be a mature space. ...'
New ideas maybe easy to come up with but translation into a product is not easy. If you can see a new idea implemented & copy it you piggy back on the innovation of others thinking & implementing.
Compare for instance Flickr to say Zoomer. The later was developed post flickr & probably quicker. The point being Flickr came up with the wonderful clean url design, api design and concepts such as 'favourites'. It also showed there was a market. Zoomer copied lots of Flickr ideas without having to think, tinker & hack.
Re: "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats." (Howard Aiken) Is this true?
#14And yet not all ideas are good ones:
http://www.advogato.org/person/apenwarr/diary.html?start=258