Ideas are Worth Nothing

kevendones.posterous.com

1 pointKevenDones3 comments

@jamesbritt I understand your point, but 37 Signal's was an already establish business bringing in some type of revenue from their products. Once you have a successful product that is selling people are going to copy your idea and revenue model no matter what. It's simply the sad truth. Your job as an entrepreneur is to create a barrier to entry, the harder the entry point the least you have to worry about it.

im so fucking sick of the "ideas are worth nothing, execution is everything" meme. execution on a poor idea is just as "worthless".

Contrast this mantra with the periodic stories of people stealing other sites, business process, and, well, ideas.

For example, when HuddleChat, a knock-off of 37 Signal's Campfire, was released, there was a bit of a frenzy. Someone copied all the ideas in the app, and apparently those ideas were worth something.

Simple, high-level, abstract ideas may have lower value; detailed ideas, ideas about execution and presentation have more value. At some point, they are worth protecting.

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