Some are suggesting that he become a dealer for you, but sounds like he would be more of a pain to deal with. So my suggestion would be to pass and let him figure it out himself unless you can find a way to make it financially beneficial to you.

Mind you, you have a special sauce no doubt he can’t replicate so I wouldn’t be afraid if he became a competitor.

Just give him a basic direction without reveling the actual part of your strategy.

People want to pick my brain all the time so what I do is give them some breadcrumbs to work with but not go into detail about how I started my company and all the things I learned along the way. Like a few words of advice and then change the subject lol

I’m assuming you don’t want to tell him because it’s a secret and you don’t want competition?

Tell him that? Are you looking for specific wording? Like “If I told you I’d have to kill you” or “it’s my grandma’s secret recipe”. This is such a non-issue.

Additionally if you were ever looking for an employee/internt/apprentice, it’s knocking in your face.

You need to learn how to say No, and F off firmly.

“So you can be my competitor? I don’t think so, pal. But for a small (ahem) fee…”

BS your way through it. Throw in a bunch of jargon that’s no way connected to it, make it seem extra confusing. And say you don’t know or need to check or something else in the same vein.

Anyways, if you’ve figured it out, there exists the chance someone else will. You don’t need to help him anyways, you’re not obligated to create a competitor. Just make sure that he doesn’t poach any employees from you. And don’t give him a job either.