I been at both sides of the table, had every idiot out there with TNFB ("the next facebook") ask me to sign a poorly written NDA before sharing their half-asses ideas.
But it stops being funny when you consider how much it would suck to get not only your idea but your entire plan for a startup stolen.
I heard this story at TheFunded about how a certain well-known startup began in that way. The original founders pitched it to some investors who liked it, but had doubts about the team, so what they do? they give everything (biz plan, doc, mockups, etc) to their EiRs and they launch an exact copy of it, sans the domain name for obvious reasons.
For me it was just another story, until I talked to one of the investors at that fund and instead of flat out denying it he said "how do you know that?"
Consider that whatever verbal contract you got with investors or other entrepreneurs is not legally valid, so if they actually copy your ideas you are SOL.
But it stops being funny when you consider how much it would suck to get not only your idea but your entire plan for a startup stolen.
I heard this story at TheFunded about how a certain well-known startup began in that way. The original founders pitched it to some investors who liked it, but had doubts about the team, so what they do? they give everything (biz plan, doc, mockups, etc) to their EiRs and they launch an exact copy of it, sans the domain name for obvious reasons.
For me it was just another story, until I talked to one of the investors at that fund and instead of flat out denying it he said "how do you know that?"
Consider that whatever verbal contract you got with investors or other entrepreneurs is not legally valid, so if they actually copy your ideas you are SOL.