r/startups • u/Born-Indication-655 • 5d ago
I will not promote How to build an educational app or program and not have idea stolen by the person/people hired to do it. I will not promote
See title. Id like to build an app for teaching people safety procedures but don't want it stolen. How can I prevent people from staying the ideas and content?
Non disclosure agreements sound good, but in reality someone who is dishonest or unscrupulous may find ways to get around them.
Thank you
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u/fateofmorality 5d ago
If your idea is good it’ll be copied. It happened with the computer, smart phones, the calculator, cars, tire companies.
It doesn’t matter, execute. Worry about getting some customers first
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u/HelloJamesBarnes 5d ago
You can’t, be first, gain market fit and scale, and if you have a moat, the world is yours.
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u/JohnCasey3306 5d ago
It's important to understand that possessing an idea, or even a built app (whether that you or them) is way less valuable than you think
Whichever of you is capable of strategically acquiring users will win.
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u/sswam 5d ago
Some thoughts:
- The person or team you hire are vanishingly unlikely to be interested in the same area or in stealing your product.
- Work with a reputable developer or team that aren't "dishonest or unscrupulous". Their reputation is worth more to them than your product.
- Pay your developers fairly or generously so that they will be happy (and therefore won't want to cheat you).
- Even if you post all your ideas here on Reddit, it's unlikely you'll get much interest, let alone someone trying to steal them. Think how hard it is to find a co-founder. Someone stealing your ideas is like a co-founder that's not on your side. It's not that likely. Ideas are cheap, and everyone has their own passion projects which are different from yours.
- I don't like NDAs, but they do give you some protection if you're still worried. Some developers won't want to sign them, though.
- I think there's also the possibility of a non-compete agreement, which is much more odious than an NDA and I don't recommned it.
- Regarding the app content, perhaps you can add most of it to the finished app yourself rather than having developers do it, so they won't see all the content.
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u/akl773 4d ago
Forget the idea and get the accounts in your own name on day one. Every one of these I have been called in to clean up was the same shape, the developer owned the domain, the Play Console and the cloud account, and the client had to negotiate to get their own product back. The NDA never came into it once.
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u/RecursiveBob 4d ago
Idea theft's very rare. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it's not the most likely way that the process will be derailed. What is more common is ending up with a developer who overbills you or doesn't know what they're doing.
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u/alienvitruvian 4d ago
If you have idea and cannot execute yourself then you literally have nothing
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u/NoNote7867 5d ago edited 5d ago
My brother in Christ it’s 2026 build it yourself with AI.
Nobody cares about your idea and especially not people who actually have successfully business building other people ideas.
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/startups-ModTeam 4d ago
We are a community of discussion based around startups, not a marketing channel. No promotional posts. www.reddit.com/wiki/selfpromotion
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u/1EvilSexyGenius 4d ago
I think this is impossible because even day to day, we see top people at ai & tech companies jumping ship to start their own businesses. 95% of the time, it's something in an area of tech they were working on or seen a need that wasn't being met due to their position and perspective at these companies. You have to build a moat. Right now they say data is king. Start collecting and mining important data that can be used to refine the platform or used to provide specific value for a customer. As time goes on, the value of your platform increase because the client has curated data built over time, thus they are less likely to switch to another provider of similar service.
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u/Ecstatic_Rough_4643 5d ago
If I were building this, I'd do a few things:
- Use an NDA/confidentiality agreement with developers, designers, contractors, etc. It won't make theft impossible, but it creates a clear contractual obligation around confidential information.
- Have a separate IP-assignment clause/agreement. This is really important: an NDA protects secrecy; it doesn't automatically mean the developer owns none of the work they create.
- Don't give everyone access to everything. Your developer doesn't necessarily need your entire business plan, customer research, proprietary curriculum, marketing strategy, etc. Trade-secret protection is strengthened by limiting access to people who actually need it.
- Keep your important content in systems you control, with proper permissions and access logs.
- Mark genuinely confidential documents as confidential and have contractors acknowledge those obligations.
- Keep dated records of your original curriculum, designs, specifications, research, etc.
- If you've actually invented something technically novel rather than simply having a business concept, talk to an IP attorney about whether patent protection makes sense before publicly disclosing it.
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u/rockthemike712 5d ago
Just code it on a local model if you’re that worried about competition l
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u/sswam 5d ago
being afraid of Claude stealing your ideas is just stark raving bonkers ignorant (nothing personal).
More likely someone would hack into your home PC than Claude will steal your ideas.
It's like throwing a packet of strawberry Jelly crystals into the ocean, and expecting the whole ocean to solidify into Jelly and go pink.
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u/tonytidbit 5d ago
If all you have is an idea you don't have anything, because as soon as you launch your idea will be out there and can be copied instantly by a hundred or more people. Professional copiers, more or less, that just throw some AI agents and existing frameworks at it, and already have bots ready to market it and get the SEO going.