01/03/2019
Trust Issues: What If Investor Steal My Idea?
Three mantras for sharing information to any investor:
Share the information in a phased manner
If the investor agrees to explore, share your pitch deck/ IM with important details
If you are at the idea stage, share the information with signing a term-sheet (if necessary)
Questions around stealing business ideas and strategies pose trust issues in founders who lack confidence in sharing their idea and believe that the entry barriers are too tiny to protect them.
However, you shouldn’t feel insecure about sharing your ideas with anyone be it a potential partner, customer, mentor, investor, team member and so on and so forth.
For Startups an idea is worth nothing more than a thought in your head. You can’t run away from sharing the essential information with your prospective stakeholders you may, however, share the information in a phased manner with the investors as below.
Phase 1: Breaking the Ice
Start with sharing a well-drafted email covering things like What, Why, Who and How of your startup idea.
A phase where you ask the investor whether s/he would want to explore it further. You need a lot of patience and occasional follow-ups.
Phase 2: Building Interest
If the investor agrees to explore more details around your startup idea,
share your pitch deck/ IM with important details
For the early stage folks- since you won’t have much traction/ metrics to show, focus more on the slides covering the below things:
Your Problem statement and solution,
competitive landscape,
monetisation,
go-to-market strategy,
founding team and
ask & use of money.
Important: You don’t have to share your in-depth financial projections or “the secret sauce” until asked for.
Phase 3: Opening It Up
If things seem fine, trust your gut and don’t delay things which break the communication channel. I strongly believe that the angel investors deserve to know your idea and ex*****on strategies in details as they take big bets with their money at a stage when no one else cares whether you’re building the next Google or Apple.
To conclude, the chances are thin that the investors (or anyone for that matter) will go behind your startup idea and have time, passion and energy to execute the way you can. Ideas are immaterial without confidence and persistence for ex*****on.
#