Releasing your business plan into the public?
mjfern: Many entrepreneurs have a fear of sharing their new venture ideas with others and I think this is a big mistake. First, it's very unlikely that someone will take your idea and implement. Other people rarely share the same passion for the idea as the originator of the idea. Second, even if someone does take the idea and runs with it (which is very unlikely) they will implement the concept in a fundamentally different way, given all the changes that usually take place from formulating a venture idea to commercializing. Third, the more people you share the venture idea with (a) the more constructive feedback you will get to make improvements to your idea, (b) the more you can practice and tweak your pitch, (c) the greater chance you will find great people to work with, etc.In short, I suggest sharing your venture idea with as many people as possible. Build a quick prototype and get it into the hands of users for user feedback. If you do have a secret sauce, which affords you a competitive advantage (e.g., Google's PageRank algorithm before it was patented), then you might want to keep this small piece of the plan secret until you can erect other barriers to imitation.Good luck with your venture!