I love this post because everyone in this community takes the Lean Startup truths to be self evident, however, the rest of the 99% still ascribe to truths that are unbelievably archaic. I see this all the time in bschool (luckily bschool entrepreneurship curriculums are teaching Lean methods now) as well as on matchist, where the #1 question entrepreneurs ask me when they submit a project is: "How do I make sure developers don't steal my idea?"<p>Generally, I know by this question that this person will not make it past that phone call/email because if they are so worried about a developer stealing their idea, there is likely nothing there/they haven't done their research/they are not serious.
I do not understand the current open book orthodoxy. I have friends that have launched very successful startups that were extremely secretive prior to launch. I do not see why it should be a generalized statement.<p>If you know how to do due diligence and come from a background in business, why do you need to be open with everyone about what you're working on? Yes, if you're a young kid and green behind the ears, you should probably not be too secretive. But you can talk to a handful of trusted, knowledgeable people without needing to be completely open with everybody you meet.<p>Does 42 Floors write blog posts about all of their ideas and everything that they are developing? Maybe they do, I don't know. As soon as they have real competitors, they will stop - or maybe they will not and I think that decision will be a function of market position. If 42 Floors has an unshakeable market position, they will be as open as can be. If there is a threat and they've lost considerable marketshare to that threat, they will be less open about the competitive ideas they have going forward IMO.<p>We're working on a company right now that has competitors that, if they had the eureka moment that we have had, would run with it. There is no reason to even risk exposing them to our ideas. So we speak in very broad terms when we discuss what we are working on.<p>I am going to do some more reading but I do not understand the mentality of share all of your ideas openly and everything will be okay.<p>Can someone please ELI5 the logic underlying this orthodoxy?<p>Thanks and I post this with all due respect. It's not an attack. It's a confused man typing in public.
Here's some common sense: if you're the CEO of a startup, you should be focused on your own company. Period.<p>This might come off as overly harsh, but it's absolutely true: taking 45-plus minutes out of your day to engage in an "argumentative" call with "the brother of a friend" who has a "world-changing idea" is a waste of time. As is blogging about it.<p>Your job as CEO is not to advise other entrepreneurs or to preach the startup gospel; it's to steer your own ship.
He shouldn't have stopped talking about the conversation with the lawyer. There were interesting disagreements there that I would have liked to hear him expand on, and say why exactly he disagrees. For example, he said that he enjoyed the conversation because it forced him to better articulate what he previously just assumed to be true.