Well, I like the enthusiasm here, but I'm afraid of going around telling people my idea. Or am I being too paranoid?
The best way is to meet with people and have them sign a non-compete, or a confidentiality type thing, IMO.
This. I have a real good friend who is a lawyer (kind of... went to law school but didn't take the board... went off to do his own business) and he wanted to tell me about his business idea but he had me sign a non-compete. It was one he drafted himself but it's a pretty standard document I'm sure you can find online or something if you don't want to use a lawyer.
Follow your heart. When it's all over what will you regret the most...the things you have done, or the things you haven't. GO FOR IT!!!!
Man, I hate these types of threads because the great idea never ends up getting posted. People just forget about it.
Start-Up in Texas Here is a good place to start...If you know you will live, eat and breathe this new idea, then go for it...Sacrifice and Risk/Reward...You couldn't do this part time until you know for sure?
I might be able to help as well - I'm doing the startup thing right now in SF and we can probably talk about ideas and how to get investments. If you like you can give me an email (found in my profile?) or private message.
Count me in as a potential investor and or accountant!! I have a good friend who started several successful online companies if want to get in touch with him let me know.
I most certainly AM not....uhhh....THAT...shifty...but an NDA is sound legal advice, and I would be happy to help Drox.. As an FYI....any qualified investor is NOT going to sign an NDA, they have the money they don't need to sign anything. Also, what you need is a great pitch, a sound business team, and a good idea of how much it will cost to develop and market the product...and it can't be "Well we are going to market it virally"...investors are too smart for that. Also, if your idea relies heavily on critical mass, you have to show a sound way of reaching critical mass....trust me on this one.... However, I would be more than happy to help, and happy to sign an NDA to protect your interests. One more blast, you can break the investment into several rounds, if you want to go demo first, then full project, that opens up angels and other people willing to put in smaller amounts... And honestly, you need to get lucky and MEET the right guy for your idea. Email me through the board. DD
My advice is that you need to fully understand the finances of operating a startup. If your idea is truly that great, I know people working in venture capital and private equity that can take a look. However, I really stress that you start understanding the finances of a business, identifying things like your revenue streams, scalability (as someone mentioned),target market, etc... While a lot of guides egg entrepreneurs on and it is true you will learn things as a startup progresses, I would surmise that most people don't understand how not unique their idea is, how many similar ideas are proposed to VC firms, and most importantly, exactly how their idea can come to fruition from an investment and profitability standpoint (which I keep stressing because of funding and support issue).
And just as a note, you may want to pick a better time to make a sales pitch then the next few months. But if the country does not go bankrupt, there will be probably be a lot of room for growth in the next few years all over the board. Good luck.
Cool. It's a weird name... but I bet it won't do well because no one will ever remember that name... LOL! How did THAT ever turn out? No, but seriously, The Wall Street Journal's Business Report this morning had some peeps on the phone reporting some stuff about "S.C.O.R.E.", an organization of retired executives/entrepreneurs from all over with all sorts of experience in different fields... also, there is the "Small Business Development Center", partially funded by the FEDERAL Gov't (you know where THAT went), and also startupbiz.com (or was it .org? I forget, check it).
