Liz Gannes from All Things D recently wrote a story about a founder who is suing Benchmark Capital for stealing his idea. The founder, Raj Abhyanker, tells a oft repeated story about how his ‘idea’ was lifted by a venture capital firm. After reading the details I am fairly certain Raj doesn’t have a case – but that isn’t the point of my post. Suing someone over the ‘theft’ of an idea is both arrogant and futile – suing a venture capital firm is entrepreneurial suicide.
First, you have to be VERY arrogant to think you are the only person in the world who has thought of your idea. EVERY time I have ever had a ‘unique’ idea I have ultimately found at least ten other people working on something very similar. Additionally, hundreds, if not thousands, of other folks have likely ‘thought’ about my idea, but failed to act on it. For example, at ShopSavvy we struggle to keep our focus narrow, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have ideas for other potentially very cool apps that leverage our technology. Lots of people outside of ShopSavvy contact us all of the time with their ‘unique’ ideas. They almost always want us to sign an NDA so they can reveal their idea to us – an idea that has likely occurred to us previously given our focus on the space. We began licensing our technology (barcode scanning SDK and product API) so that we could help these people develop their ideas. Nine out of ten people who bring their ideas to us never take us up on our offer to license our technology, but hundreds of companies have – building all sorts of applications.
Second, suing someone for ‘stealing’ your idea is plain silly. All of the time, energy and capital that you will spend suing the ‘idea thief’ would be better spent actually turning your idea into a business. The sad sad truth is that your idea wasn’t all that great to begin with and the person or company that stole your idea will fail. Most entrepreneurs must ‘pivot’ multiple times before their company turns into an instant success. Stay out of the court room – get back in the board room.
Finally, Sand Hill Road is an amazing resource for entrepreneurs. Billions of dollars to be had by entrepreneurs all on a single road in a single town. At no other point in history has been easier to raise as much money as quickly – don’t burn your bridge. Raj may be right or wrong. Nirav Tolia might have ‘stolen’ Raj’s idea, but the solution is not to sue Benchmark. We have all heard the stories about bad actors in the Valley, but the vast majority of VCs are professionals who are great to work with. Find a bad actor? The solution is to NOT work with them again. By suing a VC, Raj is forever burning his bridge to Sand Hill Road. Do you think he will ever be able to get a meeting to pitch an idea again? I doubt it. Don’t commit suicide to get even…
