I wrote this piece over a year ago but lately this issue seems to have come up again. 

You’ve come to my place, at my invitation, so that we can talk about your idea. We drink a little coffee, we trade pleasantries, and then, when the talk becomes serious, you pull out an NDA. The Non-Disclosure Agreement is a staple of business everywhere. Your idea is valuable; you need to protect it.

So why am I exiting the room 10 minutes later?

There are two basic facts you need to understand.

First, my job as a professional investor is to look at as many investment opportunities as possible. We call this deal flow. And there can never be enough. An NDA kills deal flow. It limits what I can look at, discuss with my partners and outside advisers, and eventually execute some level of due diligence upon. I can’t run my business with handcuffs on.

[Read the full article at INC.com here.]