Ideas for Cash

Hi Monkeys,

I'm a long-time lurker on WSO. I need advice.

After working for about 1 year at a mid-sized fund, I've spent the last few months tirelessly working on a side-project. It's taken many sleepless nights, much investment and outsourcing of various programming functions etc

I'm now looking to raise some small seed funding (~$1mm), but face a typical dilemma:

The more people I involve in the the project, the less profitable it becomes. While obscure, once revealed there is very little barrier to entry for a sophisticated thinker.

Hence after being declined from numerous bank loans, I must now approach others.

My questions is whether it would be better to show the idea to a few people I trust and see if they'll consider funding it privately (it's very attractive and this is a real possibility), or whether I should just present the idea to all senior staff as a whole? Or should I take this idea to a separate audience altogether (know a few PMs of other funds)?

Futhermore, is there any way I can legally bind people from using this concept outside of my permission (as any senior guy with ~$1mm is likely to want to implement for PA)?

How should I leverage the idea - ie should I pre-negotiate a base-raise/commission if it proves profitable etc etc? It's very easy to demonstrate quantitatively the exact present value/income stream of the idea...

Please share advice if you've been in this/similar situation!

Thanks

NOTE: this is not a thread about challenging my understanding of backtesting/whether I've considered X or Y...in this scenario the idea is assumed to be profitable.