Apr
15
How to Best Protect your Idea
You are in the early stages of a startup idea and want to protect it. You might think about an innovative solution to a problem or a gap in the market that others haven’t noticed. Fortunately, it is becoming less frequent but we still get asked to sign an NDA to simply listen to an idea. Our standard answer is 'Sorry, we don't do that at our first meeting'. This post is not about popular non-disclosure agreements as a mechanism to ensure that the person or organisation who gains access to sensitive information doesn’t disclose it to a third party.…
Nov
20
Why we don’t usually sign NDAs for startup ideas
Startup ideas often begin from a moment of inspiration: An innovative solution to solve a real world problem. At this early stage, it’s understandable if you want to protect your idea and keep it a secret. However, in order to capitalise your idea and turn it into a product, you’re going to have to share it at some point. And that is when we come into the picture: The app developer or software company: Them: "We will need to sign an NDA before we share" Us: "We don't usually do that at our first meeting" Them: "But I want to…
Jun
23
What are the costs of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Blockchain for Business Apps?
We are now at a technology tipping point where the application of blockchain technology is feasible for businesses and startups. The cost of implementing Blockchain applications has reduced through vendor support in the form of Blockchain as a Service (Baas) and open source libraries. However, care should be taken before diving into implementing a project using Blockchain, as a number of hidden costs and variables must be carefully examined. What is Blockchain? You can read the comprehensive definition of Blockchain on Wikipedia; however, Dr Mark Staples (Data61) eloquently distills the essence of a Blockchain to simply, "A distributed database and…
Jun
16
Distributed Ledger Technology (Blockchain) Symposium 2017
This week, I had the pleasure of attending the SDLT 2017 at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. It was an opportunity to 'nerd out' on one of the current most exciting areas of technology since the explosion of the Internet late in the '90s. The program covered technical, legal, regulatory and societal issues in Distributed Ledger Technologies (Blockchain). In this article, I have translated highlights of the Symposium from the computer science to business lingo. Dr Mark Staples of Data61 (CSIRO) opened the day with an interesting reflection on the history of software engineering; from its birth in the late 1960s to highlights on…
