So someone "stole" your idea
kent.io
kent.io
I don't want your idea. I have too many of my own. Here, take some of mine. Most likely, I'll think your idea is shit anyway, because almost all ideas are shit when they are just an idea. For an idea to have value it needs to be backed by something tangible. As the article says, ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is where the [value] lies.
That said, I still love hearing people's ideas. Just don't expect me to act on it.
I think that fits very well to how the planning for a software project should work. Bonus points if you can make it into a Trello like system where you can assign team members to milestones etc.
That's a product you can actually sell to any number of small manufacturing businesses worldwide.
Updated now.
problem: i have a marketplace type website where my users would like to be contacted but not have their emails be made public.
how it works: i set a subdomain of my site, mail.mysite.com to an ip address you designate. on demand, i make an api call to your service (emailobfuscationasaservice.com) with
{
real_address:foo@bar.com,
expiration_timestamp:2014-01-20T00:00:00.000Z,
obfuscate_replies: true / false,
callback_url: (optional)
}
the email address lives until the expiration timestamp. if the obfuscated email receives a message, you forward it to the "real_address".
if "obfuscate_replies" was set to true at email creation time, then if the person responds, you play middleman for both parties and force all their emails to go through you (basically you create another obscured email for person who writes to the obscured email).
if "callback_url" was set, that means that I, the operator of mysite.com, want to be notified of activity at the obscured email address, so you POST activity to the specified url. that lets me do things like update activity feeds in my app for the user.
If you build this, I will pay for it.
@ 2. support page as a service.
copy these: http://supportdetails.com/ http://www.browser-details.com/
Sell more aggressively.
@ 3. Basecamp for travel planning (I imagine this already exists).
I am on a trip with some friends right now. We have ideas for stuff we want to do but its all poorly organized in email and google spreadsheets. Basically the things we want to do are: tourist sites, activities, food.
A cool app would let us create a group like in basecamp, state our destination, then let us start typing things in we want to do. those get matched to existing review sites or links that contain information about them and put on a map.
in an unfamiliar place this is useful because it lets me group items/events geographically and plan my trip better. it would let people plan an itinerary together, asyncronously and make comments on possible activities for the group.
(other smart features: places to stay, modes of transportation, notes like "don't forget to get your visa by date XXX").
Basically a crud app. how to monetize? no idea. affiliate commissions on airbnb, event tickets, etc? i want it, wouldn't build it. the backend isn't hard, getting the UI right would be a challenge.
I'm pretty sure 1 exists as well, but I can't remember the name.
The realization came when I was exchanging contact info with a stranger on CL who was selling an iPhone.Why was this person now privy to my G+ profile? my phone number? etc...
The service would create "channels", each with a temporary telephone number (that works with texting) and an email. You use these to communicate with the seller/buyer/whatever and when you're done you disable the channel.
To communicate you would download an app to your phone that allows you to view messages and reply, or even place calls.
Anyways I didn't build it because I wasn't passionate enough about the idea, and I figured it would mostly be used for nefarious purposes. Also, there are some legal implications if somebody becomes the victim of a crime while meeting someone using my anonimized communication service.
Implementation of this technical problem left as an exercise for the person who "steals" this idea.
- wireless VGA adapter - one part plugs into a VGA port of your laptop, other into the display, and you can work on a second screen (or a projector) while sitting with a laptop on a couch, and you don't have to care about the display cable.
- multi-way TODO sync - a set of open-source converters of TODO lists and associated service. Open source mostly so that one person don't have to write them all, and could instead crowdsource the project. Converters would most likely have to utilize an intermediate format, e.g. one module would convert from Due Today to the common format, and another from common format to, say, Emacs .org files. Motivation: this way I could use Org Mode on my computer, Due Today on my phone, Outlook at work, etc. etd.
- marketing company based on Eliezer's ideas from here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5625966
- getworkdonemusic.com optimized for Pomodoro technique
- The Sims-like online editor for virtual characters, which you can then order 3D printed and shipped to you the next day
TODO sync is good, make is a service on heroku, ec2, etc.
The sims editor should allow you to put your own face on it. have it painted by someone in vietnam.
- an encyclopedia of objects that can be combined together (your algorithms are such that you can find from their 3d shapes, specs and connectors which parts / machines can be combined together).
That should keep you busy a few years ;)
2. Custom ready meals. Design and order customized microwavable/prepackaged meals and have them delivered to your door (logistics issue here). Great for all sorts of situations but mostly targeted at busy people who find themselves eating out too much, especially those with special diets. Could allow limitless variety.
3. An easier/cheaper way to post podcast episodes on a schedule. Try running a regular podcast and you'll get some idea of how limited the options are.
4. I strongly suspect there's room for yet another photo social app that is effectively snap chat (easily send photos to specific people) but where the photos stick around. Instagram has implemented this feature but it's a bit buried under all the other options and I don't think anyone uses it. Simplicity will rule this arena.
5. A daily deal monitoring service that alerts you when a specific product you need goes on sale on one of the many deal sites. For example, I want a robot vacuum (who doesn't?!) but it's not an emergency. I definitely do not subscribe to or watch daily deals. I want to sign up for an alert when someone has a daily deal for cheap robot vacuums.
If any of these exist, let me know. I want all of them.
I have a lot of ideas too, but I often find a rather critical flaw somewhere sooner or later, or I fall out of love with the idea because in the end... it wasn't that good.
Finding a truly good idea, one that still stands after weeks of simmering, that looks good under all angles (product is actually buildable, the customers are there and reachable and willing to pay, you're not likely to have to compete with the Googles of the world, etc..) doesn't happen all the time. Discovering a hole in a market, and realizing a lot of people are walking right past a gold mine that you believe is there is something you may want to keep close to your chest. Especially when you're talking to other entrepreneurs.
1) an excuse for taking credit of another venture's execution*
and
2) throwing mud instead.
----
Response: Call it out as a "________ or it didn't happen."
* a cousin of the Not Invented Here (NIH) syndrome
http://blog.jpl-consulting.com/2012/04/why-i-wont-sign-your-...
I take another stance on this. If you don't want me to steal your idea, don't tell me it. If you tell me it and I think I can execute on it better or quicker or I think I have a better take on it I'll build it.
Most of the time the complaint is really "someone implemented the thing I wasn't ever going to get around to doing and now I'm jealous."
Intellectual property is a subset of the broader category of intangible personal property, and so does not require its subjects to be tangible things.
Further, the subjects of intellectual property are not generally ideas: e.g., copyright protects particular expressions (not the ideas expressed) while patent protects particular applications (not the ideas applied).
> Some type of property, that can be stolen and thus deprive you of something.
> Further, the subjects of intellectual property are not generally ideas: e.g., copyright protects particular expressions (not the ideas expressed) while patent protects particular applications (not the ideas applied).
I disagree.
If someone write a novel and someone else write the same sort of novel, with the same kind of plot and characters, they are not stealing the expression (which would be the way that person write) but the idea. Plagiary is a well established offense AFAIK.
In the case of trademarks, you are allowed to prevent people from using a particular name (in order to keep that name unique and meaningful).
In the case of patents, you are allowed to prevent people from "using your idea" (even if it's also their idea). Supposedly this encourages people to develop ideas to the point where they're actually useful (and patentable), but looking at history they don't actually help.
In the case of copyright, you are allowed to prevent people from duplicating or building on your ideas (but in theory not from doing the same thing independently). Similar to patents, this doesn't appear to provide the benefits it's meant to (but it isn't quite as clear).
In no case is an idea a piece of intellectual property. Instead, the property is the right to prevent certain actions. The two cases of (attempted) intellectual property theft that I've heard of are the lawsuits by SCO around the Unix copyrights, and some guy in Florida (I think) who sued the author of some open-source Java model railroad software (I think this had to do with patents rather than copyright).
Property -- not just intellectual property -- is the legal power to exclude others from some set of actions.
Which saying is (a) not accurate of physical property, and (b) insofar as it does relate to real legal principles applicable to physical property, those principles are also applicable to intangible personal property.
Really, its more about a presumption against proprietary rights -- as property is the right to exclude others, if ownership can't be proven, no one can be excluded, and whoever is taking an action which would be excludable by another's ownership is safe, even if they cannot prove that they are the owner who would have the right to exclude others.
It reminds of something I once read: things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
I was at a tech get-together and a typical one of those guys approached me and asked "Are you a tech guy or an idea guy?" And I was like, "Well, I'm a tech guy, but I like to think that I'm capable of coming up with ideas, too." It only seems like a dichotomy to people who can't program, believe that coming up with ideas is hard, programming is easy, programmers can't think, and need "idea guys" to tell them what to do.
My brother and I created a very popular website a couple of years ago called Oracle of Legends. It was a League of Legends fansite with a LOT of features that are now copied elsewhere.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120509003942/http://www.oracle...
Loking.net didn't have the skin viewer it now has. They saw our skin viewer (granted it wasn't "ours") and built one themselves.
Ultimately a large team funded by ZAM Network's limitless supply of money won over two guys in South America with limited time and money.
My brother and I are now a powerhouse though, and we're building a new website for a new game we enjoy playing. THIS time, I don't care if the competition has more money, we'll win through sheer excellence and localization (something large websites from ZAM don't have).
It was a great experience for me and it landed me a lot of contracting work. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression
also, security through obscurity is also a flawed concept to begin with. your obfuscation efforts do absolutely zilch compared to google's gmail team and their spam detection techniques.
Seriously, I've wondered what people think they are accomplishing when they write a phone number like 2five5-3seven6-2one1four on a craigslist ad. Bots are going to find it just as easily and humans can read it.
If you have not figured out how you are going to do this, then moneyed competitors will beat you. If you have figured it out, then my experience shows that you will continue to make money, even if the competition matches you feature-for-feature.
A few years ago, I wrote a puzzle game called Coco Loco. It was an angry birds style "throw the thing at the other thing and collect the things" but with actual puzzles and items you could deform the levels with to solve the puzzles more easily.
I had a free demo out of the first 10 levels, it got good feedback from testers, and I was ready to roll out a version with 50 levels.
Then, another angry birds style "throw the thing at the other thing and collect the things" but with actual puzzles and items you could deform the levels with, called Coco Loco (trademark), got released.
My initial reaction was that they'd taken my name, my level ideas, and put a larger team on it to get the game out.
Of course, they hadn't.
Turns out, we had both come up with very similar ideas, and the exact same name, at the same time.
These things happen. Thankfully, all the puzzle design work I did could be applied to my current project, Spheretic. (http://notnowlewis.com/spheretic/ if anyone's interested!)
Case in point, back before we launched our first startup, I went out to a trade-fair asking people their opinion about our conceptual product as if it was something we had already built.
I must have talked to maybe 50+ people that one specific day, but one person in particular was very interested in it and wanted to keep in touch.
A bunch of years later, that guy turns out to have been part of another company, in a similar field, with a bigger network, a bigger budget and an existing infrastructure that matched. Over these past years, they've changed their entire company to align with our startup's little idea and actually managed to capture a significant part of the market by launching simultaneously to us rather than following our lead.
The point is, don't ever assume that your neighbor who is an accountant will steel your mobile app idea.
On the other hand, when you are talking to the CEO of a company that is developing mobile experiences about your awesome idea, then don't be surprised if suddenly that company suddenly does take your idea and execute it better than you ever could have.
When you are trying to gain actual "first mover advantage", there are situations where it's not a good idea to tell your idea.
I've been contacted by investors before to look at business plans/technology. They didn't like the founders/team, or thought the idea was really good, but missing a couple things, or they had a different direction they'd run it in. So idea theft does happen. Those with money, power and contacts with the ability to execute DO take ideas and run with them on their own.
The investors were inspired by the startup/founder idea....and then they go execute without original team, assembling their own crack team of pros to execute.
I'm not surprised we don't talk about this sort of thing around here more often. It's a gigantic, dirty pile of laundry no one wants to touch. No one in their right mind would defend the practice. The people doing it will deny it. Those who have suffered from it are often publicaly shamed for suggesting such (see a lot of the general attitudes of the comments in this thread).
It makes sense that this practice is more prevalent than people wish to think. Maybe one factor that explains so many "me-too" startups?
Edit: Maybe I could call this phenomenon "Idea inspiration."
My two cents:
You can't steal what isn't owned. If you think my idea is really good and then you act on it, you haven't stolen anything from me. I never owned that idea because ideas can't be owned. What if someone else three thousand miles away has the same idea? Do we both own it? Did you steal it from both of us?
On the other hand if, in your scenario, there was an established business plan, and other proprietary details that were taken, that's theft.
I guess it comes down to the details.
That implies that one can actually own an idea.
I'm not really trying to make any particular point, it's a pretty clever series that touches on japanese social issues though. And I guess I'm agreeing with the OP in that ideas can come from anywhere.
A few years back I had the idea for Dashboardy (and still have to domain name): a simple tool that just consumed multiple saas apps and their statistics in one beautiful looking dashboard. No one could offer me that. I did not built it, but a few months later Geckoboard and others where there and deliver exactly what I was looking for at the time.
Earlier a few friends launched Avertize, a simple app to get overlays on your Twitter picture: no one doing it when they started building it. But on the other end of the world a day before our launch someone launched the exact same app.
And more examples like this. People, completely unknowingly of each other have the same idea at roughly the same time. Strange? No: the timing and trends are right and the market is just asking for these things.
The uniqueness therefor is not in the idea. The win is in the execution.
There's a name for this phenomenon: "the adjacent possible". Covered in this book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence:_The_Connected_Lives_...
I really never feel they "stole my idea", for me it is more like a validation that my ideas don't suck that much :P
For example, today most techies have a fairly good understanding of why Facebook took off, meaning we have as good or even better understanding than Zuckerberg had when he started out. So with this understanding, would we be able to recreate the success of Facebook if we were to rewind time? It would be a lot more likely. So ideas in the sense that you have an understanding for what to build and why, and how to make it work is far from worthless.
on the other-hand, truly good ideas are nearly irreproducible, because there is a probably a very small chance someone will see the vision in your way.
ideas are art. decent art is reproducible. good art is not.
I even had a small MVP, but gave up on it. Gumroad came along and built a great product. Your idea matters very little. And Gumroad didn't steal anything.
One example I keep getting stuck on is a Craigslist competitor I've worked off and on as a side project for the past 3 or so years. Every time I get frustrated or stuck on some aspect I think of another way to get past it. I still haven't seen anything really competitive emerge in the space that users have wanted. If it isn't my idea that executes the vision and it is someone else, I will still be happy that it happened at all as I think eBay/Craigslist duopoly is not enough or sufficient for C2C/B2C local and shipping transactions.
Meanwhile in reality, the idea is not what made the platform successful, but the countless hours and minds invested in nailing the execution. As I said, it's an insult to say otherwise.
One of the things to keep in mind is that ideas are rarely successful in a vacuum. That is to say that an idea that is an accelerent on other things around it, is often more successful than a standalone idea. When an idea makes other things 'better' people invested in those other parts of the system encourage its adoption.
I often point people at comparisons of open hardware vs closed hardware. When you have open hardware you get a bunch of different people who are invested in it succeeding and that builds a stronger product base and a bigger area of effect. People with proprietary hardware solutions just don't get the extra lift.
I think that's just plain market competition :)
I'd like some way to say ..."hey...I'm going to try something out....I'd like for nobody on the planet to compete for at least 5 years while I give it my best. After that feel free, but in the meantime leave the potential market all to me."
I think that's how some people expect to (ab)use the patent system to their advantage.
We are naturally go through this - and yes those people need to suck it up and should be actually EXCITED their idea was implemented - and if you are truly passionate about the idea, you should consider on joining the new team rather than scorn them.
They brag about their idea was "stolen" because they just desire the riches the successful implementation founders have received.
A lot of people seem to 'steal' my ideas; the ones I executed and didn't execute. Except they stole nothing nor did they necessarily get the idea from me :) I'm not a big fan of 'ideas'. Execute them and work hard to make them into a success.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDfVZgtl2zM
(The go daddy airplane ad)
"In 2009, Charoo and I built Viewpointr. It was ahead of its time and today, Biz Stone and co, launched Jelly.co. They seem to have got it right… time will tell."
Sometimes I guess you just have to wait until the market is ready for your product? As opposed to arguing someone stole your idea?
If we operated on a different location in the economic parameter space we would solve a problem, and if it didn't fit into the current graph, we would shelve it only to reactivate it later when it could fit.
A dormant prototype can be a very powerful thing.
[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20081219115548/http://vark.com/
Oh well...
Stealth mode has its benefits...
I agree with the "ideas are nothing without execution" but I feel like this applies largely to the consumer web/apps field. There are a lot of other 'ideas' that have taken years (maybe even a lifetime) of research and work.
Speaking of Jelly, there is a similar idea: http://www.fluther.com/, Biz Stone was one of the advisors
~~Picasso
I'm sorry for the overwrought sarcasm, but hasn't this been understood around these parts for, what, years now? Why the hell is this blog post on the front page?