Do I need an NDA before I pitch my product?
April 16, 2021
In this episode, we talk about if it’s necessary to protect our ideas with an NDA.
All right. So the question is should I get an NBA for my business? As a startup founder or a business owner, we are interested in protecting our ideas, but at the same time, we want to be able to share our ideas with as many people as possible. So how does that work with a nondisclosure agreement? And the short answer to this question is I don't think you really need a nondisclosure agreement.
So this is my answer. Of course, if you talk to a lawyer or anyone else, they might answer differently. But I know for a fact that if you are talking to an investor, they hear so many investment deals all the time that it's impossible for them to sign a nondisclosure agreement. And this might even hurt a little bit. But your idea as exclusive as you think it might be, there are likely 100 other people that are working on the same exact idea. And if you're reaching out to the right venture capitalists who is in this field they know who those other 100 people are too.
So your NDA isn't really going to do anything other than you know making them upset and not wanting to deal with you. However, what happens if you were just talking to someone else, someone regular, you wanna bring a co-founder on, you want to bring an employee on or a mentor or coach or something like that. Should you get them to sign an NDA?
So here's the thing. Signing an NDA doesn't do much unless you have the money to actually enforce that NDA. Whenever you get a patent, a copyright, a nondisclosure agreement these are fine and everything. But the thing is people are still going to copy you and it's on you to go enforce those rights and privileges that you've earned with these contracts or patents or trademarks etcetera.
But if you don't have the money to go enforce that then guess what? There's nothing you can you can do. Even if you did have the money to enforce it, how do you want to live your business life? Do you want to spend most of your focus and time on trying to enforce things or do you want to spend your time in actually growing your marketplace, developing a better product, and offering as much value to your people as possible?
So even if you did have an NDA You probably won't have the motivation to go enforce it or won't have the funds to go enforce it. And to me, it's something that it's like going down an angle where it doesn't really help anyone. Yeah. We want to protect your ideas. You you should protect your idea. However, it's much easier just to start building up your company, building up your customer list, and building up this value with your customers than it is to worry about other people that are trying to take your idea.
The truth is, people are going to take your idea the amount of time it takes for someone to copy your idea. And let's say if your product or service is gonna be on Alibaba the very next day that you announce it. So trying to protect these ideas there for me, it's not an endeavor that's going to bear much fruit for me. What I'd rather do is I'd just rather build up my customer base, start making sales as much as possible and grow so quickly that even if someone else steals my idea, they won't be able to steal my customers because I have this relationship with my customers that are strong, they are connected with my brand story, and even if you try to compete with me on price or something else, they're not gonna leave. So that is my goal. That's why I don't think that an NDA really works. Instead of focusing my time on copyrights, patents, and NDAs I just focus my time on delivering as much value as possible to you, to the early-stage entrepreneurs who are my customers.
I hope this helps if you want to get an NDA, you know, feel free to go reach out to a lawyer and get one. However, do you really need one for me? I would say you don't really need one because it's going to be so difficult for you to enforce any way that you can just skip it and just go focus on your product and your people. I hope this helps.
Boom. Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
So this is my answer. Of course, if you talk to a lawyer or anyone else, they might answer differently. But I know for a fact that if you are talking to an investor, they hear so many investment deals all the time that it's impossible for them to sign a nondisclosure agreement. And this might even hurt a little bit. But your idea as exclusive as you think it might be, there are likely 100 other people that are working on the same exact idea. And if you're reaching out to the right venture capitalists who is in this field they know who those other 100 people are too.
So your NDA isn't really going to do anything other than you know making them upset and not wanting to deal with you. However, what happens if you were just talking to someone else, someone regular, you wanna bring a co-founder on, you want to bring an employee on or a mentor or coach or something like that. Should you get them to sign an NDA?
So here's the thing. Signing an NDA doesn't do much unless you have the money to actually enforce that NDA. Whenever you get a patent, a copyright, a nondisclosure agreement these are fine and everything. But the thing is people are still going to copy you and it's on you to go enforce those rights and privileges that you've earned with these contracts or patents or trademarks etcetera.
But if you don't have the money to go enforce that then guess what? There's nothing you can you can do. Even if you did have the money to enforce it, how do you want to live your business life? Do you want to spend most of your focus and time on trying to enforce things or do you want to spend your time in actually growing your marketplace, developing a better product, and offering as much value to your people as possible?
So even if you did have an NDA You probably won't have the motivation to go enforce it or won't have the funds to go enforce it. And to me, it's something that it's like going down an angle where it doesn't really help anyone. Yeah. We want to protect your ideas. You you should protect your idea. However, it's much easier just to start building up your company, building up your customer list, and building up this value with your customers than it is to worry about other people that are trying to take your idea.
The truth is, people are going to take your idea the amount of time it takes for someone to copy your idea. And let's say if your product or service is gonna be on Alibaba the very next day that you announce it. So trying to protect these ideas there for me, it's not an endeavor that's going to bear much fruit for me. What I'd rather do is I'd just rather build up my customer base, start making sales as much as possible and grow so quickly that even if someone else steals my idea, they won't be able to steal my customers because I have this relationship with my customers that are strong, they are connected with my brand story, and even if you try to compete with me on price or something else, they're not gonna leave. So that is my goal. That's why I don't think that an NDA really works. Instead of focusing my time on copyrights, patents, and NDAs I just focus my time on delivering as much value as possible to you, to the early-stage entrepreneurs who are my customers.
I hope this helps if you want to get an NDA, you know, feel free to go reach out to a lawyer and get one. However, do you really need one for me? I would say you don't really need one because it's going to be so difficult for you to enforce any way that you can just skip it and just go focus on your product and your people. I hope this helps.
Boom. Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
Follow Me
Instagram: https://robin.ws/instagram
Facebook: https://robin.ws/fb-page
YouTube: https://robin.ws/youtube
Visionaries Group: https://robin.ws/group
Clubhouse: @rbn - https://robin.ws/clubhouse
Facebook: https://robin.ws/fb-page
YouTube: https://robin.ws/youtube
Visionaries Group: https://robin.ws/group
Clubhouse: @rbn - https://robin.ws/clubhouse
Book: https://mvmbook.com
Book a Call: