Princeton University
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Computer Science 448
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Fred Wilson talked about giving your ideas to your existing company, that are unrelated to what the company is currently doing. This brings up the peripherally related topic of talking about your idea when you are just starting a company.
You are the CTO of a startup you have just co-founded with your partner and CEO. Your idea is in technology-based retail and involves physical goods, so it is not likely to scale at the rate of a purely virtual company like Facebook. Your technology idea or business idea is new and not one that is in use today, and in the long term the technology you plan to build will be quite differentiating. However, the idea does not today have a very high barrier to entry initially, other than the fact that it is dealing with physical goods.
Your co-founder and CEO says she is wondering whether to talk with a few VCs to try to raise money for the idea. She has been advised by some people to not do that at this stage, because VCs talk. That is, once you tell them your idea they may go and share it with others, who may go build a competitor around it if they like it. She asks you and your one existing angel investor whether you think she should go ahead and talk with a few VCs, or not, and how you would think about that. You have to write her and the angel investor an email outlining your view and rationale. Please write and submit this email/memo. In case there are some key factors that your recommendation would depend upon, state them, but also make an assumption about them and give your recommendation accordingly.