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No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

cognoscenti.wbur.org

21–30 of 74 posts

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#21
The article takes a truth and expands it to a generalization that is not correct.

The vast majority of ideas their imaginer has conceived are useless, impractical, unrealizable, pointless, trivial, overly complex and/or their proponents incapable of either execution or funding of the idea. So whether it is secret or not does not matter.

If you are a recognized leader in your field, you often find you less talented competitors will copy every idea you have poorly. They use espionage to find your ideas early and try to beat you to market with your own ideas. This is why Apple is very secretive. All of their ideas are rapidly copied by numerous competitors. Even a rumor that Apple might be working on something is enough to get competitive startups funded. Many Apple ideas are developed under multiple iterations over several years before anyone outside the black ops team even hears a rumor about them. It would be very counterproductive for Apple to release advance notice of the next decade or even next year's new designs.

Psychologically it is often a bad idea to present ideas to the public before they are ready, during the protected incubation stage. New ideas not fully realized are often ripped to shreds by critics. It is much better to get to the stage of having a prototype before you release your design to the general public. Maintaining secrecy at the early stage can preserve the motivation of the designers and prevent burnout, and reactionary responses to poorly thought out but virulent criticism. This can be especially troublesome if a very interesting idea developed at a publicly traded corporation leaks out and then is ridiculed by a notable writer or critic. Often the result is for the project to be cancelled in order to appease shareholders and a culture of fear of innovation takes over as everyone plays it safe to avoid criticism.

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#22
One exception is if direct competitors get a whiff of your upcoming killer, differentiating feature.

A smart competitor will try to cut you off at the pass. For example, they may decide to offer the same thing before you do. Or they may prep their argument to customers & the public as to why your feature isn't good. And it will light a fire under the competitors ass regardless.

This is typically relevant to direct competitors. For example, the free storage wars between Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail.

If you have an idea for a newfangled iPhone todo list app or whatever, yeah, nobody's gonna steal that.

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#23
post #2

I have seen cases where predatory hustler types have cozied up to entrepreneurs to steal various intangibles: intellectual property, time, publicity, and yes, ideas. Yet this isn't exactly what this article is talking about. I agree with the article in general-- that "stealth mode" is usually unnecessary and isolating and that people simply stealing an idea is pretty rare to non-existent. What's even more rare is som…

Exactly. Every time I've seen someone attempt to 'steal' an idea, they aren't up to the challenge of executing on it. I believe the reason for this is that there a very strong correlation between the type of personality that would consider stealing someone else's idea and then not wanting to put in the hard work of making it a reality.

That's not to say that it doesn't happen. I myself have seen someone do something I've admired and then incorporated that practice into my own procedures. That's not outright theft of an idea, but it's fairly close. Of course if this type of thing didn't occur then civilization would stop advancing.

A good case in point might be the cruchpad (http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/). Of course that went beyond theft of just an idea, but the principal still holds.

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#25
post #2

I have seen cases where predatory hustler types have cozied up to entrepreneurs to steal various intangibles: intellectual property, time, publicity, and yes, ideas. Yet this isn't exactly what this article is talking about. I agree with the article in general-- that "stealth mode" is usually unnecessary and isolating and that people simply stealing an idea is pretty rare to non-existent. What's even more rare is som…

"Yet this isn't exactly what this article is talking about. I agree with the article in general-- that "stealth mode" is usually unnecessary and isolating and that people simply stealing an idea is pretty rare to non-existent. What's even more rare is someone successfully stealing an idea. Usually anyone mediocre enough to want to lift someone else's idea isn't up to execution."

What about companies that have more resources than the lone-app developer/company? If it's a good idea, they could have it to market before you even have a chance to finish. Yes, eventually this might happen anyway, but why give them a chance to get it out there before you?

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#26

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats." -- Howard H. Aiken, designer of the Harvard Mark I computer ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_H._Aiken )

Thats what atansoff was probably thinking when he showed Aiken his prototype!

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#27
post #9

Although I agree in general, there is a valid ulterior motive to playing the "stealth startup" game, and that is as a marketing strategy to generate buzz prior to launch and drive user adoption on launch day. IMO this is really no different from a "private beta" strategy or "sign up your email pre-launch" strategy. However, the only founders who can generate any real marketing traction on the "stealth startup" play a…

Should I recognize that name?

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#28
Ah no, wrong, people will steal your big idea.

Apple was a Johnny Come Lately to the smartphone market that was started by IBM with the Simon in 1994 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Simon Qualcomm wanted to use the Apple Newton to make a smartphone out of it, Apple refused and so Qualcomm licensed the Palm Pilot and made one of the first modern era smartphones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyocera_6035 let us not also forget the Microsoft Windows CE smartphones, the RIM Blackberry smartphones, or the Linux based smartphones, or even Microsofts Tablet PC running Windows XP in 2002.

Somehow after seeing all these smartphones and tablets, Apple wanted to steal their idea for Project Purple. It took them a long time, but they analyzed the weaknesses of the other devices and developed a better smartphone called the iPhone, but to say Apple was first to make a smartphone is quite false, as it wasn't even their idea. If Apple didn't copy the big idea several other companies had, they wouldn't be dominating the market right now with iOS devices. The irony is despite prior art, Apple is suing the beejezus out of their competitors.

So yes someone will defiantly steal your 'Big Idea' and you should not fear it, and you should instead plan to out-innovate anyone who does steal your 'Big Idea' with a better product.

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#29
post #9

Although I agree in general, there is a valid ulterior motive to playing the "stealth startup" game, and that is as a marketing strategy to generate buzz prior to launch and drive user adoption on launch day. IMO this is really no different from a "private beta" strategy or "sign up your email pre-launch" strategy. However, the only founders who can generate any real marketing traction on the "stealth startup" play a…

Should I recognize that name?

The google suggests he's a co-founder of foursquare.

Re: No One Will Steal Your Big Idea

#30
post #2

I have seen cases where predatory hustler types have cozied up to entrepreneurs to steal various intangibles: intellectual property, time, publicity, and yes, ideas. Yet this isn't exactly what this article is talking about. I agree with the article in general-- that "stealth mode" is usually unnecessary and isolating and that people simply stealing an idea is pretty rare to non-existent. What's even more rare is som…

> What's even more rare is someone successfully stealing an idea. Usually anyone mediocre enough to want to lift someone else's idea isn't up to execution.

That applies when the idea is something genuinely challenging.

But what if it's just a specific need felt by a specific group of people that can be fulfilled with a CRUD app. That's a viable business, but the product can be implemented by just about any developer.

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