guest post by Bastiaan Zwanenburg
Lately I was at a dinner with other startup-founders. There was that guy, consultant right now, who was telling about how he had the idea for YouTube 5 years ago, about how rich he could’ve been. I continued googling, and found more people who claimed that they actually had the same idea as the founders of YouTube, way before YouTube was launched.
Some of them claim to be just as genius as YT’s founders. Others just call themselves extremely stupid for not executing that idea. But were they genius? Don’t think so. Were they stupid? Yes, but not for the reason they call themselves stupid. Their mistake is that they do what I see way to many people do: protecting their own idea.
Protecting your own idea is something very rational. You come up with something great, and you don’t want other people to run away with your great idea. But is it actually the idea that matters?
Right now, you can put a website online for less than $10 & a couple of hours of your time. This makes it very likely that someone will copy your idea. And the internet gives them the ability to do this really fast. An example: In March, Last year, @robertvhoesel & I launched Woodify (A webshop in wooden sunglasses). Just one month after we launched, the first 2 competitors opened their businesses. In June, there were 10 competitors. Right now? 35. The barrier to launch your own digital service is so low, that you will never be the only one in market with your idea. The first 6 weeks of our adventure, the idea was most important in our success. We were the only company selling wooden sunglasses for prices less than €100 in The Netherlands, after all. In the year that followed (And counting), the execution was most important, we weren’t unique anymore. So unless you’re monopolist and have no competition (Which is rare in this age), execution is way more important than the idea. So don’t even think you’ll be better off by hiding your idea.
Take a look at Apple. They launched iOS as something revolutionary, and a couple of months later, it was clearly dominating the market. But was Apple the first company to make phones “smarter”? Nope. There were many companies with the idea for some kind of phone that was also able to do things you used to do on a PC. Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS and Palm were all released before iOS. Apple wasn’t the only company that made a mobile operating system, capable of doing things only PCs were able to do at that time. (I.e. sending e-mail, surfing the web). Yet they dominated the smartphone market soon after their launch. They weren’t the only one with this idea (I hope Apple won’t kill me for writing this…) but they did had the best execution.
But how can you improve the execution of your idea? There’s one answer: collaborating. When you have a good idea, look for people who can make your idea even better. Reach out to mentors who can help you. Look for communities with like-minded people, who can help you. But don’t keep your idea secret. Do you really think that you are able to design, develop, finance and market a world-class product? Everyone has their own strong points, and weak points. Find people who complement your weak points, so you can make a perfect team.
An idea alone won’t bring you anywhere. It’s the execution that makes the difference. Don’t be foolish to think that you can do that alone. Don’t hide your idea from people capable of executing your idea, but collaborate with them. Use the great technologies we have to find people who can make your idea better.
