I know it can be a scary, but an exciting moment when going down the path of building your own app. We know there takes a lot of work and effort to make something happen. And just because you can make something, doesn’t mean you made something that everyone will use. Regardless, it’s a risk many of us are willing to take. Good for you.

My first piece of advice is to not be afraid of someone “stealing your idea”, because it’s all the decisions you make with your idea that truly matter (execution, marketing, location, etc.). Not the idea itself. Just because you can build something, doesn’t make it successful. This goes for any potential competition you might have too. There’s so much more than just the idea, so trying to protect the idea will most likely do more harm than good.

Our company hears new ideas everyday and we hear a wide variety of thoughts, some more baked than others. Our goal is to help take those collective thoughts and create something useful and meaningful. And even still there’s no guarantee it’ll succeed. It’s the countless hours of market research, interviewing customers, making business connections, and promoting the shit out of it (however creative you can get) that gives you a fighting chance. If someone is to give up that much time, energy and devotion into something, then they deserve the result.

Personally, I’m an open book with my ideas, because I know sharing my ideas will not only help me validate my idea, but it’ll give me new insight into what’s possible and introduce new concepts I may have never thought of otherwise. Sharing your idea is a great start to making something happen. What you do with that idea is the other 99.9% of a successful project. This is the part that matters.