[jsnell]

Sure, you do what's best for you. But I'm objecting to the blanket generalization.

There are plenty of positive outcomes other than an acquisition offer from talking to a competitor. My anecdotal data is that those other outcomes are much more common than acquisition offers. Yours appears to be the opposite. It might be due to the different kinds of businesses. It might be geographical. Or something else. It seems much better for people to not start applying your rule of thumb until they figure out which camp their business falls into.

[jmtame]

It's not a blanket generalization, I think that's the misunderstanding here. I should clarify that my advice is targeted at early stage startup founders. I don't think it applies to small businesses or lifestyle businesses. I don't think it applies in your case because you weren't working on an early stage startup.

I've always had more of an interest in patterns at startups, particularly early stage. I wrote a book on this because of my interest, and the founders echoed the same sentiment with the pattern of competitors wanting to acqui-hire by talking early on. More info on my profile if you're interested.