To share or not to share

Most entrepreneurs begin from an idea on their startup journey. As addressed before, venture ideas are a dime a dozen and are perhaps the most trivial components of the whole venture building process. The execution often weighs heavily on the mind of the entrepreneur, and if done inappropriately, has catastrophic effects on the venture.

To enable progress, it is important to begin sharing what you are thinking – the venture idea. We find a lot of entrepreneurs hesitant to do this. In part, this is often the case when you do not realize that execution trumps the creative juices that generate the venture idea in the first place. Sharing simply may help you develop partnerships to build the venture further. So it is a no brainer, that to make progress, it is essential to share your idea.

While this is part of the story, there is also another aspect that this behaviour highlights. I developed the idea, so it is my idea, and no one else can own this idea. This definitely is not true. Ideas are an outcome of the situation. The commuting example stated earlier highlights this aspect! Batch after batch, we see the same set of options as solutions! This protective behaviour is mostly because of the endowment effect the minute we think it is my idea.

Another reason why many people fear sharing their idea is the fear of being imitated and copied. Well, this is never going to be the case. First, given similar situations, most people come up with similar solutions, and second, the resource endowments of people are different. No two people have access to the same set of skills and capabilities.

Despite this, some still believe that a larger company has more resources and is hence likely to copy your product. Well, if your ideas have already gained traction and the market size is large enough to catch the attention of an existing player, this is when the threat looks genuine. But most de novo ventures in the early stages can hardly claim either of these and so it is less likely to be a genuine threat.

So, if you are asking, should I share the venture idea still – the answer is yes. Go ahead share, and you can get other minds to begin working on your idea. Leverage some of what the other minds are willing to contribute to your venture building efforts and see if you want to make them your partners.

Ask yourself:

What are my fears in sharing the idea with others?

How genuine are these fears given the current situation I am in? Could I benefit from someone else working along with me on my idea?