Non Disclosure Agreement – Do you need one to protect your product? Ask Evan

hi I’m Evan Carmichael welcome to
another edition of ask Evan today we’re
going to answer a question from Gerald
with one of my newsletter readers who is
asking about raising capital and
protecting your idea so Gerald wrote in
saying I’m trying to bring a travel
product to market and that has a
potential to revolutionize the uber
excited industry I’m already in
possession of a design patent my issue
is capital is a nondisclosure agreement
form the best way to protect my product
as I discussed my ID with potential
investors so thanks for the question
gerald from my background in bed the
venture capital industry hopefully
there’s a few ideas I can share with you
to start off most VCS will not sign a
nondisclosure agreement simply because
they’re they’re seen so many
opportunities on a daily basis and so
many products and ideas are so similar
to each other that they would never sign
a nondisclosure agreement so that’s
that’s kind of step 1 you can have one
ready and you can ask them to sign it
but for the most part they’re going to
say no really what they’re looking for
is to see if you have the plan in place
you’ll execute so a lot of people have
great ideas but they don’t necessarily
have the plan and the team in place to
be able to follow through and turn that
idea into a real business in the venture
capitalists point of view they’re being
pitched all the time with all sorts of
ideas and a lot of them are very similar
and ninety-nine percent of them get
rejected and the ones that make it
through are the ones that I have some
momentum behind them so it’s not just an
idea but you are able to show that you
have either customers or media talking
about you you build some kind of
momentan up to separate yourself from
everybody else who’s pitching the same
idea and also they look at your team so
you know
have has anybody done this before is it
just you or do you have people around
you who who’ve been successful as
entrepreneurs who have built something
similar and have some have had some
success doing it if you don’t have
anybody on your team you can go look for
somebody on your team or you can also
build a board revise it and it’s a loose
affiliation a weaker company it’s not as
strict as having a board of directors
but the people who are giving you advice
on how to grow your business and if
they’ll lend their name to your company
it can help establishing credibility
with you when you go talk to investors
so you know angels might sign it but if
you look into venture capitalists point
of view they’re not going to look at
signing the non-disclosure agreement
your best bet really is time to market
so it’s really only a matter of time
before somebody else goes and runs with
your idea so you want to get it out
there and start talking to investors and
try to get the money you need to launch
your business it doesn’t mean you go and
post it all over every internet forum
and you know broadcast exactly what
you’re doing but you have to be a little
bit more open when you’re talking to
investors because they’ve seen so many
of these ideas and they’re like I’m not
going to want to talk to you if it means
they have to sign a nondisclosure feel
so for that helps drill for those are
you watching if you liked the video
please give it a thumbs up below it
makes me want to do more of these videos
for you guys and if you have a question
about what you know Gerald’s question is
something similar or you have another
question about your business feel free
to leave it in the comments below I
always read those and try to respond to
as many as I can so thank you and we’ll
see you on the next episode
you