[Discuss] Startup?

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

I'm with Tom Metro on the NDA and intellectual-property topic.  The idea
itself isn't what's special.  Your passion to make it into a business is.

Sure, talk to a hopefully-pro-bono lawyer about all this, but building a
patent firewall around your idea is $100,000 at minimum between legal fees and
various PR/market-development strategies required to defend against the big
guys.  In any case, once your idea is proven successful, you need to get big
fast. Patent law in the USA -- for at least the last 50 years -- is really
just a game for companies the size of the one I'm at (1500 employees, 300+
engineers) or bigger, not for small ones.

One person in this thread suggested that in order to cash out, you'll need to
embrace patents.  That's something for your mezzanine-level (series B or
later) investors to decide.  Your angels shouldn't be expecting this at all,
unless their goal is to plaster their bathroom walls with worthless
patent-award plaques.

Remember, your early investors are investing in YOU, not your IDEA.

-rich