In this brief video, Evan Carmichael advises entrepreneurs to share their ideas despite the fear of theft, emphasizing that keeping a concept secret will cause it to die. He explains that investors, including angel investors like Arlene Dickinson, typically do not sign non‑disclosure agreements because they encounter many similar proposals and cannot be held liable for ideas they read. Carmichael urges founders to conduct due‑diligence on potential investors—checking reputation, past deals, and any allegations of idea theft—since reputation is paramount in the investment community. He clarifies that most investors seek partnership: they provide capital, expertise, and connections while relying on the entrepreneur to run the business, rather than taking over or starting a competing company. Trust, therefore, is essential; without it, an idea cannot attract the resources needed to become a company. The video ends with a call for viewers to like, comment, and submit questions for future videos.
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You have to share your idea. If you want people to come on board, finance your investment, bring on a team, bring on suppliers, you have to let people know what it is that you're doing and not be afraid. You could do some research, make sure that the people you're dealing with are reputable, but if you hold on to your idea and you're the only one who knows about it, it's going to die with you. You have to at some point trust people that they're gonna help you and not steal your idea and run with it themselves. I got a question from one of my readers who wrote in with a huge long email. Selva basically wants to talk to an angel investor, Arlene Dickinson, who's an angel investor here in Canada, has a TV show. And in order to submit the idea, it's all online, and you're saying there's no disclosure document. So they will not sign a non-disclosure agreement, which means that they're not gonna— they're not held in court if they share their idea. Here's the thing, okay? I used to be in the venture capital business. I had the same policy. We would never sign an NDA because we see tons of the companies out there with the exact same idea, minor modifications, but on the whole it's the same thing. And it means if by reading your plan I couldn't do a deal with somebody else It wouldn't happen. People in the investment community do not sign NDAs. Anybody who's serious about it. And they're doing a lot of deals. So you have to make up your mind here, okay? You will need to get help. If you're trying to raise capital, you're gonna have to trust somebody. Start by doing your research. Look up Arlene. She's a pretty big name. She has her TV show. People know about her. See if she screwed anybody on a deal. To my knowledge, she hasn't. But if somebody has, if she's taken somebody's idea and run with it, it'll be all over online. You'll find it. You'll see if she has a good reputation or not. If you think about it from the investor's point of view, think about it from Arlene's point of view, or what I was going through. Whatever you're doing, you have some kind of shoe product. I have no interest in running a shoe company. I'm an investor. I have a general knowledge of a lot of different businesses. And how to run a successful company, but I have no interest in starting a shoe company on my own. Investors don't make their money by coming in, poaching an idea and trying to run it themselves. They make money, the smart ones, by partnering up with hungry entrepreneurs who have a great idea, who have some experience to run this business, and all we're putting in is the capital and some knowledge and connections. I don't want to run a shoe company. So it's up to you if you're going to decide to trust somebody like Arlene. But she's in the same boat. She has her own business to run, she has her own investments to run. She does not want to run a shoe company. It's an investor's worst nightmare when they have to come in and run the business. They'd rather work with entrepreneurs who are great at running their company and they're coming in providing some expertise. When an investor has to come in and take over a business, it's because the entrepreneur doesn't know what they're doing. And they have to save their investment. And that's worst-case scenario for an investor. She does not want to run your company. She doesn't want to steal your idea. So do your research. Find out. See if she's ever done that to anybody. Because reputation is everything in that industry. And at some point you're gonna have to trust somebody. Otherwise the idea is gonna die with you and you're never gonna be able to build the company that you deserve to have. Believe. For those of you watching, you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. It makes me wanna do more for you. And I wanna hear what you have to think. Please leave a comment underneath. It, uh, always makes my morning when I see the comments come in. And if you have a question for your own company, Feel free to leave it below and I'll make a video reply for you. Thank you, and I'll see you soon.
