| People say a lot of things. You need a business plan, and you need customers. It's ridiculous to think you'll get customers interested in you if they don't know what you're doing. But I think the question is do you do this under NDA? Now an entirely different issue is if you have any value in keeping your business plan a secret? Most people in business and in Silicon Valley will agree that ideas are cheap and come about often, and it is mostly all about execution. To that end, I believe that you gain little by keeping your business idea secret, unless you want to be a cool kid and have the lamers at techcrunch or whatever has replaced them with do a big splash. I believe your best bet is to talk with folks about what you're doing, pitch potential customers and investors and competitors equally, and don't be worried about keeping anything secret. The counter to this, is that you want your messaging to be clear. If your message is too broad, and you tell too many people too many different things, they'll dismiss you as unclear. And as a startup you will be unclear. So only share what you're doing with folks you trust, but not because you fear competitors will steal your idea, but because you only get one chance to make a first impression, so be careful how you use that one chance. |