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In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about how industrial espionage, or corporate terrorism, is plaguing the industry in a big way. Competitors often resort to employing dirty tactics to extract valuable information, such as one’s product roadmap and/or funding. Steli and Hiten talk about the various steps that you can take to avoid falling prey to such tactics. At the same time, they caution organizations against focusing too much on this issue. If it draws your focus away from your customers and product, then it’s taking too much of your energy and time. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:05 – Today’s episode is about competitor’s resorting to industrial espionage and ways you can deal with this situation 00:42 – How can you avoid leaking information to your competitors? 01:40 – Steli used to think that it’s better to be laser-focused on your product and NOT on your competitors 01:49 – Steli has realigned his thinking and now feels that understanding your competitors will give you better insight into your customers 02:30 – A competitor may pretend to be VP of innovation of a big company and call up a board member in order to extract information 03:17 – They may attempt to extract information such as the product roadmap or what’s happening with your fundraising 03:35 – A gullible board member could give out a ton of information 04:14 – Hiten says that people play dirty and extract confidential information that will stunt the growth of their competitors 04:43 – Hiten says that companies are often faced with a moral dilemma when competitors resort to dirty tactics 05:03 – There is NO right answer 05:08 – What you do depends on your beliefs regarding what you feel you need to do to stay in the market 05:28 – Executives using questionable tactics has become commonplace 05:48 – Steli talks about the dubious tactics used by Uber against Lyft 06:09 – Where do you draw a line? 06:14 – The legal line is not negotiable, but the ethical line is, unfortunately, quite negotiable 06:47 – Organizations tends to get flustered when a competitor is extracting information 07:00 – Steli questions whether competitors will get a huge edge if they manage to extract information via questionable means 07:34 – Avoid overreacting 07:55 – Some wise defense measures for companies looking to prevent theft of information 08:07 – Mutual NDA signed before a demo call 08:14 – Redirect people to a LinkedIn page to see who is viewing your profile 08:37– People with the same demo and in the same city can join together to exchange strategies 10:16 – Are your competitors doing anything to extract information? 10:51 – What do you do to get some nice competition? 11:22 – How you behave in the marketplace is a demonstration of your values 12:27 – Hiten suggests updating customers if the competitor’s behavior goes overboard 14:15 – Some factors to consider before going public with information about a client resorting to corporate espionage 14:38 – Talking to the competitor’s investors would be another option 17:00 – “Play to win and not just play to play” 18:28 – Do not let your competitor’s tactics shift your focus from your product and your customers 20:05 – Steli’s parting advice is to always think carefully before reacting to a competitor’s strategy 21:04 – End of today’s episode 3 Key Points: Beware, some people don’t mind playing dirty and will extract confidential information if they believe it will stunt your growth. What you do to stay competitive in the market is a reflection of your beliefs and ethics. Think through each reaction carefully before you respond to your competitor’s tactics. Steli Efti: Hey, everybody, this is Steli Efti.