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Could the YCombinator idea submissions be shared with potential competitors?
I personally do not feel ideas belong to anybody. They are more of a starting point to build products.
But just wondering if there is a possibility of the ideas that people apply with being shared with other ycombinator startups working in the same fields.
- raghus 19y agoThere's no formal pledge of secrecy but you have their word that they won't share your app with anyone outside of YC - and that includes other YC startups. It says so on the first para of the app.
- cperciva 19y agoYou should take that with a grain of salt. Sure, the YC crew will try to not share your ideas -- but they're humans, and after reading five hundred applications, I'm sure there are ideas which stick in their skulls but which they don't remember came from a YC application. In the end, the same rules apply to YC as apply everywhere else: If you have something which absolutely MUST remain secret, don't tell anyone.
- raghus 19y agoTrue - but that's enough for most people. It is for me.
- lgcale 19y agoWell, that's the risk every startup should take like us. Same scenario if we submit a business plan to VCs... the more we expose our ideas, the more anyone can dupe it. That's why a friend of mine who founded Chikka.com said, implement your demo first so no one can just grab it but that rule doesn't applies to all. Though we did our demo already. Why would the YC spends time replicating it when there's already an existing one. And their playing field is more on assisting the startups get funded. So far, I haven't heard any negative feedbacks from YC so I'll take that as sign of trust and integrity. Nobody likes to get dupe!
- yawl 19y agoIt is answered in the FAQ: http://ycombinator.com/faq.html http://ycombinator.com/faq.html 'Will you sign an NDA? How do I know you won't steal my idea?'