Discuss your startup ideas openly. Do not be afraid!
“Should I discuss my next BIG startup idea with my friends or other startup founders, investors or mentors? What if my idea gets stolen and they build the next Facebook or Microsoft?” This is the basic question that young budding entrepreneurs have in their mind all the time and many of them actually most of them hesitate to discuss their business or startup ideas freely and openly.
The answer is today no one has the time and velocity to work on the startup idea that you discuss out with them. You should not be afraid about discussing it out loud. The only person who is going to benefit out of the lot it you! You are the one who will be getting counter questions, queries and perceptions of your idea with the people you talk with. Think of it more as a closed group market survey. Whenever you discuss out an idea with someone, anyone, if that person falls into your target user list or understands your target audience well enough, there will be only two things:
- You get your idea validated. It will serve as a strong confidence booster for you.
- You will end up re-thinking of the idea or solution you have devised to the problem and ultimately try to dig in more harder.
Anyways, you will be benefited.
My approach to an Idea
Ideas are in abundance and like many others, I too get many ideas and think about solutions that can be done to tackle some problems that I see. Whenever I get an idea, I do the following:
- Note it down in my mobile or notepad, whichever is handy at that time
- Instantly send an email/message to few of my friends and mentors
- Meet them in person or over call to debate on the idea
- If there seems 100% conviction, move ahead with it or keep it in the queue to be implemented later.
P.S.: My ideas do not necessarily mean startup ideas only. I am already running 2 startups. So, I play around with module enhancements in my startups to capture a new market and expand business and if there is an amazing new startup idea, I do work on it.
Let me give you an example of how it works:
Example 1: Back in 2016, when I had just returned from San Francisco after attending an accelerator program, I called up my friend Mayank Rupala and told that I have got an idea that is not there in India yet and it will change the driving ecosystem. The idea was about replicating Lyft (A car pool and taxi-hailing startup similar to Uber which allows anyone to become a driver in their part-time in USA) in India but only for two-wheelers. Mayank always likes to play the devil’s advocate role and the first thing that came to us as a concern was Safety. How will the safety of passengers be protected in terms of accident? Will they carry helmets? Will the passengers feel good to sit behind any unknown person that too at a low proximity. Probably not! We scrapped the idea at once and did not discuss it again. 1.5 Years later, Uber came up with Uber Moto in India and they are still struggling!
Example 2: Tired of waiting in petrol queues and sometime even forgetting to get the tank full on time, I got an idea about delivering Petrol on-demand to people at their home and work place. There are few startups who do the same in the USA, have their own mini petrol filling vans and associated with companies as well. Though the idea seems full proof but at similar time, more danger is involved in terms of design of the van and operational aspects. Above all, there will be strict government regulations that needs to be gone through. This idea is still in nascent stage of development, approved by my friends and mentors too. But I do not have time for it right now and go for government lobbying and what not. Let’s see if I can someday deliver fuel at your place or not. Only Time will Tell.
Not All Ideas are Great Ideas. But You have to Keep on Believing in it and Working on it until you make it Great!
The whole point is always keep a closed group of friends and people to discuss even the smallest, lamest or craziest idea you get. Get it Validated. As they say that if you are able to sell your idea to a few, you will be able to sell it to a million.
Discuss Freely. Don’t be afraid ever. You are an entrepreneur inside.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on September 7, 2018.
