Let’s say a person has a great idea for the next big internet “thing”. In this hypothetical situation this idea is clearly innovative, valuable, and doable, but the creator doesn’t know where to begin to try to get it off the ground.
What should that person do? Who should they approach? How does he/she go about that approach? How does the creator prevent someone from stealing his/her idea (after hearing it in discussion with the hapless creator)? Remember, in this hypothetical the idea IS a damn good one, and while nothing’s ever guaranteed, it is pretty clear that the idea has strong potential to make millions–perhaps hundreds of millions–of dollars, so the fear of idea-theft is not mere paranoia.
And no, I’m not sitting on some golden scheme… or even a half-assed one. This subject has come up many times with some friends of mine. I think one (or more) of them suspect they have such an idea and are bouncing ideas off the rest of us about how to proceed.
When asked, I can never do any better than things like: well, you’ll need a good attorney and good tech people. But then I’m quickly reminded that “that’s all obvious”. I’ve been wanting to ask this here for a while but I’ve not been sure exactly how to lay it out. I guess I’ll just keep it simple here and then elaborate if needed.
Ideas are worth very little without either a patent or an actual implementation. Even then the execution is why people get rich, not the idea.
Either file a software or business method patent, or just get to work developing the idea, hire a web developer and build your idea and then promote the hell out of it. You’d need some kind of actual working implementation to get even angel investors interested.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. I hear ideas from people all the time. Most of them are crap. Some of them are good, but won’t get anywhere, because the person doesn’t have the resources or desire to implement them.
If you’re serious about starting a business, then:
Incorporate some kind of legal entity. The earlier the better. Get a good lawyer and make sure all the relevant intellectual property belongs to the company.
Start implementing the idea. If you don’t know how, then you’ll need to hire people to do it. This takes money. It also takes a strong NDA and a lot of common sense.
Prioritize. If you have any budget at all, it will be enough to implement the tiny subset of desired features that actually matter in the long run. Keep in mind that if you’re looking for software talent, there’s a pretty huge trade-off between skill and price. That newly-minted CS grad may be willing to work for minimum wage and hypothetical equity, but his work will probably be crap.
You are not equipped to judge the qualifications of any person you hire in any field that you have not at least worked in. Ask for recommendations from people you trust. That goes doubly for lawyers and accountants. Oh, also get an accountant.
Do not even think of approaching VC until you have a well-crafted business plan and a working prototype.
Expect to go broke. Business is hard, and it’s not nice.
Well a web idea is even harder if, you mean a website or a way of doing business on the web.
Look at all the people who say Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook. Facebook is just a social networking site, that took off because of a combination of format and timing.
And once you get it out there, someone can come along and do a similar thing with better designers or simply have better luck and out do you.
Thanks for the answers so far. The reason I wanted to stress that–in this hypothetical situation–the idea was an obvious “can’t miss”, potentially hugely valuable idea was to avoid the discussion of just how many crappy ideas there are floating around.
Undoubtedly this is so. I just wanted to reserve the topic to presenting / revealing an individual’s web business plan, and the whole “what/how now”?
The problem isn’t in coming up with a “can’t miss” idea. The problem isn’t knowing that you have a “can’t miss” idea. The problem is convincing someone with money that you have a “can’t miss” idea. If you can’t do that, you have very little. To convince people you need business plans, demos, etc.
One of the key things about successful startups seems to be that they focused on growing their user base from the beginning, and managed to do that well. Launch the product early, implement it in a way that carries the essential idea well and steadily grows a loyal user base. Most other things are secondary to that. IP is less important than you’d think.
Everyone has a guaranteed million dollar idea. I have a spam folder full of them. The product idea isn’t the important bit.
See if there is a local inventors association or web start-up group where you can share your ideas and get advice. These groups often have people who not only provide good guidance but who have connections in the relevant industries. I’ve been to one of these groups and it was helpful. Find one where everyone signs a confidentiality/ non-disclosure agreement.