AI-Powered Copycats Force French Startups to Keep Innovations Secret
After the happy start-up nation, comes the fearful start-up nation. Entrepreneurs in the French Tech scene, who once loved nothing more than sharing their latest discoveries over cocktails, are now steeped in mutual distrust—and that could come back to haunt them. "The fear of sharing ideas because of AI is spreading everywhere. Among start-up founders, we talked a lot about this at the Gemini Startup Forum Cybersecurity not long ago. We all agreed: as soon as you have a good idea, you keep it to yourself!" says Gautier Bugeon, co-founder and CEO of MokN, a French cybersecurity start-up launched in 2024. What are they afraid of? That competitors will copy their ideas using AI. "At dinners and cocktail events, I've definitely noticed that start-up CEOs are now reluctant to share their ideas for fear of being copied," confirms Tristan Duranté-Koudella, co-founder and CEO of Studeria, an AI consulting and training start-up founded in 2022.
AI breaks down the technical barrier
"In the past, when a company launched a product, it would share lots of technical details to explain to prospects how it worked. A blog post would often give even more information about its development. But those days are over!" insists Gautier Bugeon. And he has good reason. He's convinced that MokN's competitors have already used technical specs the start-up shared about one of its innovations to reproduce it with AI. "We were a bit too talkative about this innovation. I spoke at filmed conferences that were posted on YouTube, where I discussed technical details. And I later found those same details in other products," he laments. "AI has destroyed the technical barrier to entry for launching many projects. Before, copying an idea required significant resources. Now, that barrier has completely collapsed," says Lucas Goumarre, co-founder and CEO of Korben For People, a robotics start-up.
"AI is now used to dig up every detail about a product: blog posts, various documents, recorded conferences, webinars... Then, using all that information, AI generates an implementation plan for the product," explains Gautier Bugeon. To avoid this kind of mishap, Lucas Goumarre refuses to discuss Korben For People's projects. "When I speak in public, I focus on the company's past and present, but never its roadmap—never the future. Because if I talk about my roadmap, I know someone could catch up to me extremely quickly with two or three developers and AI. With AI, it's even possible to guess steps I've planned and execute them before I do. AI massively increases the ability to catch up to a company by copying its ideas," warns Lucas Goumarre.
Fast-paced copying
Another mishap for MokN's co-founder: shortly after launching his first solution, he leafed through a competitor's latest product brochure. To his surprise, he found the technical documentation for his own solution, "word for word." "My competitor was able to quickly develop their product thanks to that documentation and AI. Now, with AI, you can develop a copied idea in two weeks—the copy isn't as good as the original, but it works." This documentation was only available in a demo environment that MokN uses at trade shows for prospects. "They must have sent someone to our booth who wrote down the domain names we use for our demo environment," he complains.
"Our latest product took a year of R&D. I know that if I reveal all the details of its development, someone could reproduce it in three weeks with AI. With those details, competitors can generate the product's playbook without having to face the difficulties and failures we encountered during development. They could implement it in just a few weeks." "Now, with AI and a small team, you can create a competitor from scratch and have a market-ready product in just a few weeks!" confirms Lucas Goumarre.
The risk of stifling innovation
It's not just among themselves that start-up founders are afraid to share ideas. Entrepreneurs also worry that investors they pitch to might pass their projects on to other start-ups in their portfolio, giving them a competitive edge. Sometimes, they're right to be concerned. "I know a start-up CEO who creates AI agents for sales prospecting. He realized that one of the investment funds he was talking to had invested in a competitor. And all the ideas he presented—ideas he hadn't yet developed—were implemented by his competitor six months later. Without AI, it would have taken his competitor two years to copy and develop those ideas. He would have kept his competitive advantage," says Lucas Goumarre.
Here's the problem: by being too afraid to share ideas with peers and investors, start-up founders risk missing out on business opportunities and slowing their own innovation. "This fear is terrifying because it blocks a lot of good projects. When a start-up doesn't share its ideas with more experienced entrepreneurs or investors, it misses out on valuable advice and feedback that could save it a lot of time and money. So it has a very negative impact on start-up innovation," notes Tristan Duranté-Koudella. "This fear does slow innovation, but only for start-ups. They need to move forward by sharing ideas. Meanwhile, in big companies like Google, people do share ideas internally, which drives their innovation. And no one would ever think of copying a Google idea with AI..." concludes Lucas Goumarre, with a dose of realism.
This article was automatically translated from French. Read the original version: https://www.journaldunet.com/start-up/1557297-start-up-le-plagiat-par-l-ia-panique-les-entrepreneurs/