How Do I Stop Potential Partners From Stealing My Ideas?

[stymie]

What up all. I have an idea for a business that would borrow some aspects from from Uber's business model with regards to logging in and quickly finding a partner/employee that is in your area. I'd like to sit down (or Skype, etc.) with a skilled and honest app creator and discuss my idea, but am afraid of having that person take my concept and run with it, leaving me out of the equation. What is the best way to protect myself against this from happening? Any recommendations for websites and/or services that are designed for this type of partnership/collaboration?

 

[Ryuzaki]

What up all. I have an idea for a business that would borrow some aspects from from Uber's business model with regards to logging in and quickly finding a partner/employee that is in your area. I'd like to sit down (or Skype, etc.) with a skilled and honest app creator and discuss my idea, but am afraid of having that person take my concept and run with it, leaving me out of the equation. What is the best way to protect myself against this from happening? Any recommendations for websites and/or services that are designed for this type of partnership/collaboration?

You'll need some kind of air tight non-disclosure agreement.

Nothing is going to stop someone from trying to steal your idea regardless, once you're launched and marketing someone can try to come flying out of the blocks and try to outpace you. Once you're going you'll need to go hard.

You don't want to end up like the Winklevoss twins, walking away with something like $75 million in value when it should be many multiples of that. Then again... not a bad deal for someone else doing all the work. I'm not sure how far intellectual property rights will go on your idea (I don't know anything about them actually), but if you're going to stake a large move or portion of your career on this project, you might as well take every step you can to legally defend yourself when needed.

 

[CCarter]

What is the best way to protect myself against this from happening?

The competition is going to steal your ideas regardless. You should be comfortable with that.

If you go into projects with people you don't already trust you'll be battling two fronts instead of one - internally and externally. No one can win a battle at home and abroad at the same time, it's mentally draining.

Don't let potential theft scare you - just execute - otherwise you'll make decisions that slow you and your operation down - and the project will never make a single dollar.