teamI am a software developer and I’m planning to found a startup, I think my idea is original and has potential so I really want to launch it on the market. I’m willing to build a team but the fact that the idea is relatively easy to implement and copy, scares me and stops me from inviting people to my team, because of the lack of trust, even for closer friends. How would you manage such situation?
How would you manage such situation?
I would go back to my day job.
Ideas that are easy to (re)implement are worthless since any wannabe competitor with better backing will just do what you do better once you hit market.
The short answer: intellectual property. You’ll hear me say that a lot if you start contributing on Startups.
If you patent any inventions you have, nobody on your team will be permitted to reproduce (in the country) them without your explicit consent or a licensing agreement. Of course, that’s only useful if what you have is patentable, but that’s a business decision you have to make, and a decision that’s likely best made during a conversation with a patent professional.
Beyond official patent protection, your best bet would be to include some sort of NDA clause in any contracts you write up. You can get some post-facto protection from the United States by calling your process a trade secret, but only if it’s hard to reverse-engineer (which I imagine this isn’t, from what it sounds like). A good example of that would be a recipe, like that of Coca-Cola.
My best solution for you would be to speak with an IP professional about your options, then go from there. There’s virtually always some risk in starting a team, but you’ll probably find that taking that risk is better than not bothering to try anything.
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