Last 2-3 weeks
we had some sort of arguments and conflicts with my class mates at
KTH/Stockholm. Some of them really believe that, if they have a
business idea and plan to start-up on it, before going to a business
angel or a venture capital they should send an NDA before and if they
sign the NDA then they will go and talk about their business idea. But
some others and me believe that signing a NDA is not really a good way
to protect your idea, furthermore it is not that legal to use it in
court.
Last week while i was talking with a venture capitalist in
Stockholm, i asked the same question to him and he said; “i never sign
that kind of papers, you should trust me. What ever you do, i probably
have more lawyers then you do.” Another example about this was a
professor from KTH who worked for Stanford Univ. in USA and have been
very close to silicon valley, she also said the same; “no one sign that
kind of papers in silicon valley”.
All in all; i also believe that signing a NDA means nothing and
moreover, ideas are just the 3-5% of the whole business, i can find you
10s of ideas everyday but the most important and the difficult part if
execution not the idea.
yes I agree. Most of the best ideas are out there in the public domain. In fact the problem is that if an idea is really good you will be able to shout it on the rooftops, people won't understand or believe you. Before the WWW people went around telling all about this hyperlink stuff with powerpoint presentations. Most people who heard it, never got it. They could not believe something like that could happen. Who would produce the content? The same is now true of the semantic web. Someone said "Ideas belong to those who understand them". Get a group of people together who understand an idea, and you will be able to go extremely far, to places where others however much money they have, will never even dream of.
And in any case, who in their right mind would ever want to sign such an agreement? How can you tell ahead of time what you are going to be shown and if it is original.
Posted by Henry Story on February 27, 2008 at 12:28 AM CET #
Hi Henry,
I really agree what you wrote "And in any case, who in their right mind would ever want to sign such an agreement? How can you tell ahead of time what you are going to be shown and if it is original."
This almost summarize all the things :)
Posted by Alper Celik on February 27, 2008 at 12:41 AM CET #