How to Sell an Idea and Safeguard Your Innovation from Big Companies

How do you prevent big companies from stealing your idea? This is a question that comes up a lot. It's a question that came from one of my YouTube viewers, IamGrader, who wrote in to say, "I'm creating an app. What happens when you release your app? Other big companies have hundreds, thousands of developers, will steal your idea, have the money to advertise it. How do I prevent big companies from stealing my idea and making money off it more than I do?" So here's the thing, okay? An idea, an idea is not enough. The only way to save an idea is through a patent. Okay? If you have an idea that you can patent, then go get your patent and the companies, the big companies, if they want to use it, well then they have to license your patent or buy your patent from you. That's the only way to protect an idea. Otherwise, what you need to do is get out there and build more than an idea. Having ideas is not enough. You gotta go and create something. And here's what usually happens, okay? Remember, big companies are slow typically. They're not the leaders in anything. They're typically very slow. You could stay under the radar for a long time before the big companies notice. And when a company is looking at what you do, they're gonna think either, "I'm going to reverse engineer this," or I'm gonna buy the company. And this is your chance to get sold. I know because I sold to a big company. I had a biotech software company, okay? I had a biotech software company. It was a small business at the start. There were 3 of us who were— who were owners in the company. I built it up and I got to the point with the business where companies started calling to us. They started coming and say, We're interested in what you're doing. And these were big companies. And I had a choice to either sell to them or I would face competition from them. And what they think, this is how their minds think, okay? They wanna get into my space. Okay, this is gonna be the same for you. They wanna get into your space with the app. It's gonna take them time and money. It's gonna take them time and money to develop the app, develop the software, or to also build up a community. So when the company bought my business, they were not just buying the software, right? They could have redeveloped my software. It could have been— I don't know how long it would have taken them to do it, but it would have taken time. It's not like they could do this overnight. But it was also the market share, the user base. People were using our software, and so by acquiring your business, They get in faster. They don't have to spend money developing the software, and they have a user base who already loves what it is. So if you want to sell your idea, sell your app, then the two things you need to do is: one, make it great. So have it— have a technology lead so that it can't just be reproduced in a day. And two, build up an audience, because even if they have the technology, it doesn't matter because you have the audience. So to summarize, if you just have an idea, the only way to protect it is a patent. If you can't get a patent, your idea is not protected, but it doesn't matter yet because you need to prove this concept. And if you have great technology and a user base who loves what you're doing, you become a prime candidate to be acquired, sell your business, and move on to your next app. Belief. For those of you watching, like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. Makes me wanna do more for you. And leave a comment, let me know what you think. You have a question, leave it below, I'll make a video response. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.