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I'm in a similar situation. Contacted my university about the idea with their dedicated IP manager etc. They all think it's a fantastic idea, but the issue is raising the moohlah to get it off the ground.

Moderately annoying.
 
Kind of reminds me of that one Ali G episode where he pitches the hoverboard idea, but wants them to do all the work to get it to actually hover.

In all seriousness though, you'll need to do one of two things..

1. Come up with the money to pay your team to work on it, or
2. Give them enough of a share to make it worth it for them to work for little or no money.
 
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Do some research on seedfunders in the UK/EU.

Regardless of the idea, I would say before you approach any angels/investors, you need a detailed plan on how you intend to get an audience, keep an audience and also a short, medium and long-term plan as to how you will monetise the site - it's all very well having an amazing idea but if your vision of it making money is sticking Google ads on every other page then you need to think more about it. :p

Also this will vary hugely depending on the type of site, but there are plenty of open-source CMS systems, Wordpress, Joomla etc which you could use to knock up a 'sample' site with very little technological know-how that at least displays your vision, if not the whole functionality.
 
To be honest the world is full of people that have amazing ideas but no know-how in regards to developing them into working websites. I don't want to burst your bubble but you're either going to have to stump up the cash to pay for development, learn how to develop it yourself or somehow convince a developer that your idea is amazing and worth them sinking months of their time into for no guaranteed return on that investment.

Having heard the "I've got an amazing idea and if YOU do all the work you can own a small percentage of the website/company" spiel a thousand times I can tell you that it instantly turns me off. I'd much prefer to be paid my normal rate upfront and have nothing to do with the website afterwards - unless the person with the 'amazing' idea can convince me otherwise (which you're not going to do with the secrecy you're talking about).

edit: damn it..I didn't realise that this post was in GD. Can we have it moved to the web development forum (mostly so I don't break my own rule of "never post in GD")?
 
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Decent developers are very unlikely to work for free for a share of the company.

Non disclosure agreements could be used to protect your idea when hiring contractors.

I would look at some of the specialist web venture capitalists, plus maybe go to some of the web entrepreneur events that happen in London, but be careful about giving out details of your idea, just learn how to get funding.

Rgds
 
I'd imagine, Non-disclosure agreement.

Maybe, you can get some kind of Intellectual Property right copyright over it as well? Not too sure though.

kd
 
Having heard the "I've got an amazing idea and if YOU do all the work you can own a small percentage of the website/company" spiel a thousand times I can tell you that it instantly turns me off.

That's exactly it. We get pitches near every week from someone who thinks a 2% share in something we would do all the work on is perfectly fair.
 
Firstly, talk to a reputable freelancer/agency (depending on your budget) and give them a very brief overview of what you want. You will have to give them some detail as to what the project entails. Just simply saying 'sorry, it's a secret' will get you nowhere.

If they're interested get them to sign an NDA you've written and then give them a functional brief.

Also, I would seriously suggest getting away from offering equity as payment. Any decent developer worth his salt will run a mile. All it does it say 'I'm not confident enough in this idea to spend my own money, so I'll make you waste x months of your time developing it instead'.
 
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