Ask YC: Would you still apply to YC if
Ask YC: Would you still apply to YC if your application could be viewed by anyone?
Some smart people started the meme that ideas are less important than execution. That statement is very true. Unfortunately, there are too many cargo culters out there who take bromides like this to the extreme just because their favorite guru said it.
If you've got something innovative, why in the world would you want to give a group of entrepreneurial hackers not only your idea but enough about its execution and strategy to attract investors? Doesn't make a bit of sense to me.
I can already hear the wags saying, "You must not be very confident in your ability to execute better than the competition." My preemptive response to that is that there always exists a group of people who can execute an idea just as well as you can. Your likelihood of having the dominant implementation of an idea is based not only on solid execution but luck, relative time to market, and other factors -- most of which are not served by giving away your strategy to potential competitors.
Don't get me wrong, I give out ideas all the time, will talk openly about things that I'm working on within reason, and will risk strategies getting out when I pitch investors, but that's much different from guaranteeing that the blueprint to your business will be handed out to your competitors on a silver platter. That's not wise unless you consider your competitors really incompetent. I think too highly of my colleagues here to do that. :)
If I wanted to see how quickly someone else could reverse engineer and clone my app, this is the first place I'd go.
Hell, there is so much talent (and attitude) here, it would almost be a little contest.
Ideas are less important than execution, but a head start is a big advantage in execution (and adoption).
I like to give away ideas that I'd like to see made into products or services, but that I don't have any interest in implementing myself.
If the idea is more about what could make a quick and easy splash on the Internet, then no way should people give away their ideas. That would be nuts.
A similar thing happens in the research world. Only an idiot shares their funding proposals will colleagues in the same area who might put in a proposal before the same board.
If you think the stuff you write on that application (did someone call it a "BLUEPRINT"?!) has anything but the most tenuous connection to what your software/strategy will look like in 3-6 months, you're smoking something.
The problem with secret ideas is that they are secret to your users, too. We literally got onto TechCrunch with three speculative jpg mockups and barely a line of code... We were buried with amazing feedback and ideas and fairly quickly became very smart about the market we were playing in. We got offers to help. The level of interest was incredibly motivating.
Startup geeks are passionate about THEIR ideas. Not yours. The risk that a great team is sitting around waiting for an idea is absolutely minuscule compared to the reward of exploring the market.
# of people working on project: 1
brief summary: todo list
monetizing plans: none
reason for site: personal use
competitors: lots of better products
other notes: Step 2 of the project is much more exciting than Step 1.
I was implying that I was going to pretend that my work was the work of 20 people to get people more excited about it.
Maybe a rumor that my company received 100 million in funding would do...