I remember that during the First Internet Bubble, I was working as a product manager for a start-up and sweat a lot to figure out a legal, easy, appealing way to provide a specific financial service online. No one had done that so far, I was alone in the dark.

We launched and it was a instant success. I was so happy.

Next day our main competitor launched the same product. It was not similar, it was a copy and I could prove. In one of the steps, they used an image I created, using my own documents. It was my personal data in enemy hands!

As Jason Cohen saidThe question is not “What if someone copies your awesome idea?” It is much more like What happens when employee #2 makes off with your code and roadmap and marketing data and customer list, moves to Bolivia, and starts selling your stuff world-wide at one-tenth the price?

I would love to have a happy ending as yours, but it was not the case. I think during a bubble is not always the best team who wins, it is the fastest (sometimes trading ethics for speed). But that is another story…

Great post! I am currently a young entreprenuer working on my first web-based start-up and I am using the Customer Development model Ash uses.

One thing recently came across my disucssions with my team about “getting out of the building” and it was about getting our idea stolen. I strongly feel it is important and having this fear can’t be helpful in anyway. In order to alleviate the fears of my colleagues, I plan on showing this entry. But one thing just occurred to me, it has been 5 years since you last wrote your book. How prevalent would you say this process is? How likely is it that your potential competitor would not only take your initial idea and slides but also perform the same iterative tasks you would be doing?

And the good news is, you actually had an advantage of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor, having devised the original idea in the first place.

What a sly dog you are (wink) having set your “competitor” up for failure.

Good read and thanks to the comments on this post. Good stuff too.

EE

Would you mind posting the evolution of slides? (I am assuming they are no longer as confidential).

This would be a great learning tool for guys like us, how you went through the process and where you end up. If you do, I will put my time to decompose those slides, try to recover what has changed, where you did change the assumptions etc.

If you think, this is not possible, I would still hope to get the slides privately, I promise to keep them confidential.

Thanks,
Batu

It’s hard to tell whether “this” means the time you are talking about in the same paragraph (which was the one covered in the previous article), or the one covered in other paragraphs, the one in this article.

It’s pretty much what I say to my partner when he worries about someone stealing our ideas: “well, they might, but the thing is, **they aren’t us!**”

Keep up the great posts.

Drew

I really enjoyed this post. As I tell my students, “ideas are cheap, execution is expensive”. You proved this adage to be true once again.

I generally avoid handing over my slides as well, for two reasons: (i) confidentiality and, (ii) because I do not want someone else to try to “tell my story”. I know that no one can deliver my pitch with the same passion and intensity as me or my team.

I discuss the issue of privacy at greater length at: http://www.infochachkie.com/private/

I am adding your site to my blogroll – great content.

John