6 comments

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  hectorpal

  11 months ago

  hum... funny. Let's see how it goes. If I were consider to get into an start up, I may try this way. I code, but not this kind of things, and I'm not willing to learn.
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  Tom Holder

  11 months ago

  This is a great idea in theory, it allows you to not only keep your idea 'secret', if you will, but it also means you have to think carefully about how it can be modularised.
  
  Of course, in practise, I think this is a possible recipe for disaster and a lot of painful hours with desperate teams trying to stitch together flaky, inconsistent code.
  
  I hope you've been able to successfully navigate this one through the potential pitfalls and come out with a solid product. Best of luck with your startup.
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  Eiso Kant

  11 months ago

  Thank you. Your comment summarizes the response I've had from a lot of developers and you are right. However there are a few details I should have but didn't explain. For me it's only temporary to get the foundation ready - the startup itself will have a full team. I am also doing this to give myself time to continue to talk to possible investors and decide where I want to locate.
  
  Will I then throw away all the code and start over?
  
  No and this is why: I have two user interfaces, one for the web and one as a browser extension, in any case they would have been developed by different people. They're two completely independent parts. As last I have the backend, a complex database structure but is setup to only accept a few easy and standard queries. The rest of the queries are handled on database level.
  
  Looking at one of these parts you can't find out my completive advantage, looking at them all together you have my startup. I am incredibly aware of the risks I take with this and especially if I switch developers the problems that can (probably will) come up. I find it harder to read other people's code then to start from scratch and make it myself. Therefore all the complicated parts occur on database level, the code I wrote myself. So no matter what happens there will always be someone in the team (myself) who can work on that, or explain it to others.
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  isfan

  11 months ago

  so many things to get right in a startup. timing is probably key so execution, as you point out, is critical. personally, I don't worry about secrecy but understand how you would be worried someone would run with it. cool concept to split things up as long as it doesn't make things more complicated, expensive and ultimately add to delivery time
  
  the thing is though, the idea is only 5% of the business. if you can control the business side, i.e. interfacing to customers, figuring out what they need and delivering value, then you are truly in control of something valuable.
  
  it would be cool to chat sometime. i open to telling you what we are up to and would be interested in your input. openness has served me very well.
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  Eiso Kant

  11 months ago

  Thank you for your comment Allan. I agree an idea on its own is often worth nothing. However I am bringing a simple solution to a complicated problem. I believe I know a way to make human powered search work. I wouldn't be at all surprised that when I release it into the public though other sites will copy the features that make it so unique. Especially since the technological barrier is not at all high. I've accepted this and thought about what I could do about it; a patent application is often useless.
  
  So the advantage I want to have when I launch it is that I have those few months to gain traction with users before my unique features are copied.
  
  I would love to however talk with you and there is a lot I can disclose. So feel free to send me an email (address on the right hand side).
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  Tom

  11 months ago

  Agree with Allan, people that are focussed (and could therefore pose a threat to your business) are already too busy doing their own thing to worry about stealing someone elses idea.
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