I used to work for an organization that gave the juice company Innocence, their first seed capital. This was back in the day, of course. I understand that they sold some of their shares to Coca-Cola.
The reason why I mentioned this was because we were a government agency that helped individuals start in business. Therefore, occasionally we had somebody who wanted us to read their business plan but required a signed confidentiality agreement. My boss always said “no”. He figured that there were any information leakages, it gave the individual the right to file a legal claim against our organisation. We didn’t want to be liable for so many bogus claims.
I know that most people won’t want to hear this because everybody thinks their idea is the best thing that has ever been made. But I can tell you for sure that your idea is not as rare as you think. I’m not suggesting that you have no uniqueness in your business. I am saying this to make you realise that stealing someone’s idea is not as common as people try to make out.
The average business person has hundreds of ideas, and often more than they can ever execute. Besides, if your idea is that great, then you can either register it under the intellectual property rights or create a brand that cannot be easily copied. I do think if you go around trying to get investors to sign a confidentiality agreement before reading your business plan, you’re not going to get very far. Just to say I’ll never sign one myself.
Finally, this is what I will suggest: if you have any reservations showing a particular person your business idea then don’t do it. You’ve got to trust your gut feeling and it’s better to be safe than sorry.