Category: Q & A

Based on the wording of your question, and the voluminous details of your incredible backstory: Focus on the awesomeness of your idea, rather than your own personal awesomeness – your background and achievements are something to wave in front of investors, not potential technical cofounders.

The kind of partner you seek will, as part of their extensive engineering background, know how to "google you" – and if s/he likes your idea, it'll happen naturally in the course of their due diligence. Talk about the problem you're trying to solve, and the interesting engineering challenge your solution presents, and don't worry about the rest.

Advice for a non tech founder: I am 22 and have had some success in prior ventures. Have $75k for startup funds and no tech co-founder. Any advice?

You can sue anyone, at any time, for any reason.

Patent lawsuits, especially IP patent lawsuits, are for dicks.

Don't be a dick.

The entire wording of this question is focused on the future ability to sue competition which may never exist, or which would otherwise beat the pants off your startup because while you were focusing on patent trolling your industry, they were actually making products and services people wanted.

That said, is it "worth" getting the various bits of "secret sauce" of your startup patent-protected whenever possible? Maaaybe! The cost and time sink may well pay off if you have a particularly complex hardware solution, or even more complex software algorithms working together in a wholly unique fashion.

To your followup question: once you "go active" with your desire to sue infringers, all the competition and even some of your less-patent-friendly customers may start looking into prior art – that is, instances of your technology/algorithm/feature that existed before your patent was awarded. You may still certainly sue anyone who qualifies as pre-existing, but it will be a much harder case to win, and it will basically be a race to see who runs out of funding for litigation first. Good times.

Does getting a patent on your startup idea means you can instantly sue any clones out there?

Affiliate sales comes to mind – hawk other peoples' stuff for a commission. Easy, no or very low upfront investment, and whether online or offline, it'll help you build a list/infrastructure that can be reused if you later switch business models, create and sell your own stuff, etc.

Which business can one start as an entrepreneur without investments:Sales is my strength?

The best advice is "agree to terms before you begin, and don't worry about it".

Ideally, you'd use really generous terms as I suggest in my answer to the question: How much equity should you give a CEO/Business Manager at a startup which has already started making some money?, which will further help to reduce tensions as the prototype/idea is fleshed out.

Failing that, you have the ultimate in "Chestnut Advice" about startups: If someone (or the whole team) pushes you out of your startup, you really should take it as a sign that the team wasn't going to work anyway…

Simply possessing a percentage (even controlling) in a stock doesn't prevent people from leaving/stealing your idea, realizing they are faster/cheaper/better in some way without you aboard.

Perhaps the best advice in these situations, is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and focus on always being valuable to your team, rather than worrying about whether you can can somehow keep control over them.

What would you do if you would be pushed away from your idea/company?

The best advice is "agree to terms before you begin, and don't worry about it".

Ideally, you'd use really generous terms as I suggest in my answer to the question: How much equity should you give a CEO/Business Manager at a startup which has already started making some money?, which will further help to reduce tensions as the prototype/idea is fleshed out.

Failing that, you have the ultimate in "Chestnut Advice" about startups: If someone (or the whole team) pushes you out of your startup, you really should take it as a sign that the team wasn't going to work anyway…

Simply possessing a percentage (even controlling) in a stock doesn't prevent people from leaving/stealing your idea, realizing they are faster/cheaper/better in some way without you aboard.

Perhaps the best advice in these situations, is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and focus on always being valuable to your team, rather than worrying about whether you can can somehow keep control over them.

What would you do if you would be pushed away from your idea/company?