Thieves come in two categories, but they have one thing in common, they can't help it and they will steal again if you let them.
The friendly ones: You know them and you trust them. A client asked to buy me a cup of coffee. I spent an hour helping him with ideas for improving his business. At the end of our meeting he said: "So what are you up to?" I said I was working on an idea, and that his company could help me test it, because some of his customers was in my target group. He told me it was a hopeless idea and that he could see no use for it - it made me question my idea and I stopped working on it. Three months later he launched the product. He never heard the full story and will never fully understand the potential of the idea, but I lost the traction I could have gotten.
The stupid ones: They try to mimic whatever successful people do. Youtube is full of Mr. Beast lookalikes. X is full of guru's with just the right program to be a successful tweeter. Taking an idea and making it into a success without the visionary inventor is close to impossible, unless you copy a full business on a new market. Done successfully by the Samwer brothers: https://eightify.app/summary/online-business-and-entrepreneurship/3-billionaire-brothers-copying-websites-curiosity-dose-11
To fight a category 1. thief shut the f*ck up unless you talk with a person you can _really_ trust. If you want to protect yourself, try reading "One Simple Idea" https://inventright.com/books/one-simple-idea/ To fight a category 2. thief make sure that your underlying business model is not in direct view. Which will give the thief a chance to copy your idea, but not the business.
Yes I've had ideas stolen from me.
Thieves come in two categories, but they have one thing in common, they can't help it and they will steal again if you let them.
To fight a category 1. thief shut the f*ck up unless you talk with a person you can _really_ trust. If you want to protect yourself, try reading "One Simple Idea" https://inventright.com/books/one-simple-idea/ To fight a category 2. thief make sure that your underlying business model is not in direct view. Which will give the thief a chance to copy your idea, but not the business.