Ask HN: I need your advice about Angels

10 points by Xelom 10 years ago | 4 comments

Since last month, I've been developing a mobile application in my free time. It is my idea and currently a unique one. But it is somehow easy and also effective. I have a demo version to show right now. It is not production ready but it explains the idea really well.

So I decided to join a local Angel meeting. There will be mentors from my city and I will show them my demo and explain them my idea. But I have this feeling about stealing the idea. Because they have the money and they have a great network. If they see a future why in the earth they will choose to co-operate with me and not with their friends or collegues?

I know a lot of people has gone through this stage of starting a company. I need your advice about this situation and how to find funding.

P.S.: I'm not a native speaker. Sorry for grammar mistakes.

aspir 10 years ago |

Contrary to popular belief, angels have no incentive to steal an idea they've been pitched on. More accurately, doing so is a net negative.

Angels do a few things well: quickly vet a flood (sometimes dozens a day) of inbound deals to back with a tiny investment, and support the companies that have found product market fit after the first investment. Both of these sound trivial, but it's difficult to do in practice and both are incredibly valuable. The vast majority of angels are either not good at building things, or they're too busy/exhausted to do so with their time. If they were, they'd become entrepreneurs, or join as an exec in the most successful startup they backed. Also, the great networks that angel investors provide are on the business side. Angels expect you, the technical founder, to have the technical network and skills to hire and build product.

So, angels exist to source good deals, and support the winners as they surface. This is their lifeblood. To steal an idea is a cardinal sin in the angel community as much as the entrepreneur community. They'd be outcast, removed from deal flow, and their career as a seed investor would cease to exist. If we assume that the majority of business ideas are flawed, and the majority of startups die, then for an angel investor to steal an idea makes no sense: they'd be effectively ending their careers for little upside.

On a more humorous note: being an angel is an easy life compared to building a business, let alone building a business off of someone else's idea. Any angel that would give up an easy life that makes money for a hard life of executing an idea they aren't passionate about, and a life with a high risk of failure, is an idiot.

akg_67 10 years ago |

The likelihood of an angel stealing your idea is pretty low. If an angel really gets enamored with your idea, s/he most likely will try to persuade you to work with him.

The possibility is very slim that an angel already has or can build a technical/business team quickly with expertise in same domain to execute on your idea. The red flag for such situations is typically when someone tries to string you along for a while and keep trying to get more and more details from you.

Before you engage with any angel, make sure you know what you want from him/her, final outcome for such conversations, and how long do you want to engage with him before moving on.

rahimnathwani 10 years ago |

You can't keep your idea secret forever, unless you never launch your business. Is the business you're intending to launch so dependent on first-mover advantage, that telling people your idea will ruin your chances?

If so, it's unlike most businesses, and definitely unlike most mobile apps.

A separate point: unless you have some customer/user traction you haven't shared here, I'm guessing your idea may not be as significant or unique as you imagine.

Good luck.

rahimnathwani 10 years ago | |

Also, this: http://www.loqqus.com/blog/should-you-tell-anyone-about-your...