At a time when artificial intelligence-fuelled content is flooding social media with promises of turning side hustles into billion-dollar empires overnight, seasoned tech leaders are offering a sobering counter-narrative.
In an engaged LinkedIn post, experienced technology executive Dele Sikuade challenged what he described as “rubbish online” about idea worship, stressing that sustainable businesses are built not on secrecy or novelty, but on market validation, execution, and constant iteration.
“It’s not about finding a gap in the market,” Sikuade wrote, “it’s about establishing that there’s a market for you in the gap.”
His reflections center on the industry reality of how openness, feedback, and execution, rather than guarding ideas, can unlock growth, investment, and long-term value.
Beyond Finding a Gap: Proving There Is a Market for You
One of the strongest messages in Sikuade’s post is the distinction between identifying a market gap and proving that customers actually want you to fill it.
He cautioned aspiring founders against starting with abstract ideas or hype-driven concepts, insisting that founders must first answer a harder question, how they intend to win customers in that space.
“Work out how you’re going to do that FIRST,” he emphasized, underscoring that without early validation, even the most exciting ideas are unlikely to survive.
This perspective reflects a growing consensus among experienced operators that traction, not originality, is the true signal of a viable business.
Innovation Is About Doing Things Better, Not Just Differently
Sikuade also addressed a common misconception in startup culture, that success depends on inventing something entirely new.
According to him, most customers are not searching for novelty for its own sake, but for improvements to existing behaviours.
“People aren’t looking for brand new things to do,” he explained. “They’re looking for ways to do the things they already do, better, faster, cheaper, or easier.”
He advised founders to focus on incremental improvements, test them in small samples, and only then think about scaling.
In his words, crack that formula first, “and then order the brochure for Sunseeker yachts,” a tongue-in-cheek reminder that glamour should follow results, not precede them.
Why Ideas Alone Are Worthless Without Execution
Perhaps the most striking part of Sikuade’s message is his blunt assessment of ideas themselves.
“Ideas aren’t rare, they are ten a penny,” he stated, arguing that what truly differentiates successful founders is their ability to execute, fail, pivot, and execute again.
He encouraged entrepreneurs to openly share their ideas, use others as sounding boards, and “crowdsource intelligence” rather than operate in isolation. According to him, secrecy often slows progress, while openness accelerates learning.
“It’s not your idea that’s valuable,” he concluded. “More doing and less thinking is what brings the rewards.”
From Openness to Investment: A Founder’s Real-Life Validation
That philosophy was vividly reinforced in the comments by Ridwan Adelaja, who shared how embracing openness directly led to the birth of Techparley Africa.
Adelaja admitted that he had to first accept that his idea “wasn’t special” and could easily be copied. Instead of hiding it, he shared it “shamelessly” at events, with colleagues, during casual hangouts, and even at family dinner tables.
The result was unexpected momentum. “Soon, about 8 individuals called me in and asked to know more,” he wrote.
After pitching and openly sharing his roadmap and scaling strategy, two of them decided to invest.
“That’s how Techparley Africa got its wings,” Adelaja explained, adding that whenever he sees people hoarding ideas, he “shivers” at the amount of opportunity being lost.
Together, Sikuade’s reflections and Adelaja’s lived experience offer a timely reality check for founders navigating an era of AI hype and viral business advice. Their message is clear, ideas may start conversations, but only execution builds companies.
In an ecosystem increasingly tempted by shortcuts and buzzwords, the reminder that disciplined action, feedback, and persistence matter more than secrecy may be one of the most valuable lessons for the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Talking Points
The exchange between Dele Sikuade and Ridwan Adelaja offers a necessary corrective to the increasingly romanticised, AI-driven narrative around entrepreneurship, particularly in emerging tech ecosystems.
By centring execution, market validation, and openness over the fetishisation of “big ideas,” the conversation exposes a structural weakness in how many aspiring founders approach innovation, confusing originality with viability.
However, while the argument rightly demystifies idea ownership and emphasises iterative learning, it risks being misapplied if taken to mean that strategy, timing, and defensibility are secondary concerns.
Openness can attract capital and insight, as Adelaja’s experience demonstrates, but it must be balanced with clarity of vision and execution discipline, especially in competitive markets where speed and differentiation still matter.
Ultimately, the discussion is most valuable not as a blanket rejection of ideas, but as a call for founders to reframe ideas as hypotheses, useful only in so far as they are tested, refined, and converted into measurable value.
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