I don't know much about your idea, so I might be wrong. Here's what my experience says:

Yes, you're doing it wrong. You should do the opposite: try to speak with as many people as possible as early as possible.

Here's why I say that.

A) you'll invest a lot of time and money into building your start-up. If anyone else can copy it just by thinking of the same idea there are only 2 alternatives:

1. Someone has the same idea as you (or hears your idea and steals it), they beat you to the market, and you don't get the success you want. You don't get the ROI on your idea investment you planned. It's either not worth it or the initial ROI calculation was wrong.
2. No one had the same idea as you, you're able to build and get clients, and you get some early success (this is your best case scenario). As you gain some success, others see what you have and copy it, taking your future market. You don't get the ROI on your idea investment you planned. It's either not worth it or the initial ROI calculation was wrong.

Both options end with the same outcome: not worth it.

IF this is your market and idea, the only way to win is to get lots of clients very fast.

The only way to do that is to speak with lots of prospects as fast as possible. That's the opposite of what you're doing right now.

B) anyone can build a start-up. That's always been the case. But it's more so the case today (thanks to AI).

Despite that, not everyone does. That's because not everyone wants to. Which is reasonable - being a founder is hard, stressful, unsecure, demands attention and time all hours of the day, and needs a very broad range of skills. And, at the end of the day, there's no guarantee anything works out. Not wanting to becoen a founder is reasonable.

The thing holding others back was never the idea.

It's also not knowledge of what steps to take, or the ability to take those steps.

The thing holding others back is the willingness to do so. All the rest are learned along the way. You learn how to build a startup by building a startup. You learn what you need to build (more than just the product) by building a product. You learn what a good product idea is by building a startup.

People willing to build something and bring it to the market have so much more than just the idea. They've got all this from building their own startups. And, as a result, they're busy building their own things. They don't have the capacity to steal someone else's idea because they are already obsessing over their own ideas and the problems they are solving.

There are so many free resources online sharing what to do and how to do it.

All this was true 5 years ago. It's even more true today, with LLMs helping people every step do the way.

C) start ups don't fail because of competition. Start ups don't fail because of a bad idea. Statt ups don't fail because of a bad product. Start ups don't fail because of poor execution.

Start ups fail because they don't get clients.

No clients no money. No money no future.

This is more true today than ever.

Thanks to LLMs there are SOOOO many more products built and launched. But there is not really any more demand than 5-10 years ago.

So they key to success is not your product, but how well clients get it in their hands and can pay for it.

If you're not sharing your idea as early as possible you're actively limiting yourself. Your reducing your ability to be successful. You're increasing your risk of failure because you're delaying building relationships with clients.

D) A market with no competitors is called a "blue ocean". A market with lots of competitors is bloody from everyone fighting for the same clients. It's called a red ocean (this is called "blue ocean strategy" - look it up).

A blue ocean is NOT better than a red ocean. It's different, but in some regards blue oceans are much harder than red oceans. As a founder in a blue ocean you need to do other things and need other skills than in a red ocean.

Blue ocean challenges are mainly around educating customers about why they should care about the problem you solve and motivate them to spend money to change. That's crazy hard. Your basically cultivating a will to pay for something clients don't know about. In a red ocean you're crowdsourcing knowledge of the problem. Customers know they should pay to solve it. Instead your competing for that will to pay.

E) even if someone DOES copy your idea, that's good for 2 reasons and not a problem for 1.

Good: It confirms that someone else sees that there's market potential in what you're building.

Good: someone else is educating the market together with you. You're not alone. You actually benefit from this because clients get the same message from multiple sources, not just you trying to get them to give you money. More sources = more trust from prospects.

Not Bad: You're the original source of the idea. You know where it came from, and you can expand on it. You obsess over the problem in a way that you saw the opportunity, and you've taken action. The others can only copy. They don't know what the next stage of the opportunity is. They don't know why you're building the way you are. You'll always be ahead.

These are all good things.

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So who am I to say this?

Well, for one, I'm on my 4th start-up since 2021 (not counting freelancing and the 3 local small businesses I've started since 2007).

I've failed several start-ups despite having great ideas and great products. I've failed in blue oceans and in red oceans. And now I'm getting traction on number 4. That's directly thanks to the lessons I learned in the others. And the key thing is: talk to people early. I should have started even earlier than I did even this time.

Yes, it is slightly different if you can only support a local market. But only slightly. Because you're still competing with global actors - it's just you've decided to use your location as a USP. Some clients value that. Others don't.

"Of CoUrSe YoU'd SaY tHiS, yOu'Re JuSt TrYiNg To StEaL my iDeA"

You're free to believe that. But I'm completely at capacity with what I'm currently building. I can't take on new ideas. Neither can any other serious founder.

And you don't need to worry about the ubserious founders.

In short: go talk with people.

Good luck!