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When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

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Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

#3

Post by cenal »

mikeshreds wrote: post #2

Hi All I'm a founder of Shred Video and the author of this article. Happy to answer any questions about our experience.

I feel for you guys! Obviously you only posted your side of this but I know how expensive navigating the legal system can be for a small business owner.

Happy to offer some thoughts and advice from someone who is not a lawyer but has been sued before (and won by having the case thrown out with prejudice!).

Email me lane (at) joinjune (dot) com

Also, maybe setup a GoFundMe for having people help you raise funds to fight this?

Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

#4

Post by shostack »

Genuinely curious for your legal counsel's take on you posting such an article publicly. I've always thought the prevailing wisdom shared by all lawyers was "don't talk."

Also, in this day and age of using services like Github for personal projects but having access to other repos, etc., using things like 1Password for work and personal things, how has the discovery process worked with everything?

I'm really interested in knowing to what degree someone should be paranoid. Are you potentially risking your entire business because you once checked your work webmail from a personal computer or checked a personal email account from a work phone?

Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

#5

Post by mikeshreds »

shostack wrote: post #4

Genuinely curious for your legal counsel's take on you posting such an article publicly. I've always thought the prevailing wisdom shared by all lawyers was "don't talk." Also, in this day and age of using services like Github for personal projects but having access to other repos, etc., using things like 1Password for work and personal things, how has the discovery process worked with everything? I'm really interest…

One of the best ways to discourage bad behavior is to shine a light on it, which is why we're publishing our story.

The risk here isn't that your former employer actually has a right to your company under the scenarios you listed. It's that if they have the resources, they can bleed you in litigation before your case is ever adjudicated. It's like a form of patent trolling, they're using the process to achieve an end they'd never get in adjudication.

Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

#6

Post by mikeshreds »

cenal wrote: post #3
mikeshreds wrote: post #2

Hi All I'm a founder of Shred Video and the author of this article. Happy to answer any questions about our experience.

I feel for you guys! Obviously you only posted your side of this but I know how expensive navigating the legal system can be for a small business owner. Happy to offer some thoughts and advice from someone who is not a lawyer but has been sued before (and won by having the case thrown out with prejudice!). Email me lane (at) joinjune (dot) com Also, maybe setup a GoFundMe for having people help you raise funds to fig…

Thanks Lane, I'd love to hear about your experience. I'll reach out to you separately.

Financially we're going to be fine, we have enough already to fight this legally. Of course we'd rather not, and we want to expose this behavior for other entrepreneurs vulnerable through similar abuses of the legal process.

Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

#8

Post by cenal »

shostack wrote: post #4

Genuinely curious for your legal counsel's take on you posting such an article publicly. I've always thought the prevailing wisdom shared by all lawyers was "don't talk." Also, in this day and age of using services like Github for personal projects but having access to other repos, etc., using things like 1Password for work and personal things, how has the discovery process worked with everything? I'm really interest…

I'm not affiliated with them so my thoughts are my own. I'd wager this is a last nuclear option before they lose their company to the lawsuit. If they can manage to publicly shame the company suing them they stand a shot at keeping the company alive.

Typically lawyers hate posts like this because it's public record now what happened and if any of this isn't true and provable 100% it can hurt them, a lot.

There are some eDiscovery consulting companies like http://www.dcdatacorp.com that go out and do forensic capture for law firms before it ever gets to a courtroom. They try and determine access to digital systems best as they can on behalf of the firms that hire them.

Don't build a business on quicksand. Get a lawyer involved in formation to ensure your IP is clean and usable for your new venture. If in doubt. Scrap it all.

Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup

#9

Post by mikeshreds »

cenal wrote: post #8
shostack wrote: post #4

Genuinely curious for your legal counsel's take on you posting such an article publicly. I've always thought the prevailing wisdom shared by all lawyers was "don't talk." Also, in this day and age of using services like Github for personal projects but having access to other repos, etc., using things like 1Password for work and personal things, how has the discovery process worked with everything? I'm really interest…

I'm not affiliated with them so my thoughts are my own. I'd wager this is a last nuclear option before they lose their company to the lawsuit. If they can manage to publicly shame the company suing them they stand a shot at keeping the company alive. Typically lawyers hate posts like this because it's public record now what happened and if any of this isn't true and provable 100% it can hurt them, a lot. There are so…

This is not a last nuclear option, and we're not in danger of losing our company to the lawsuit. Everything in the post is 100% true.

We did get a lawyer involved when we started Shred Video, and are 100% sure our IP is clean and usable.

It will take probably two years for the case to get fully adjudicated, and the legal recourse for preventing frivolous lawsuits like this is insufficient. Starting a startup is plenty hard enough without this kind of distraction, it's in all of our interest to dissuade larger companies from harassing startups in this way.

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