What inspired you to share the details of your side project? Just curious.
Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#12It's been very open to this ending badly, the more you wish to pursue it. However, if you truly feel like you can reach an optimal outcome, you'll go for it anyway.
Know what you want. Do you want to get paid? Do you want to run it? Do you want to participate in the upside? It's only when you know what you want, can you determine if the deal is fair.
Before opening up the kimono, if you are interested in protecting yourself, you should try to get an NDA in place. It probably won't work, but it's worth a shot. It's also very likely this entire process will sour them on you and you on them. Best of luck!
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#13Would you consider selling it ? If you don't have customers it probably isn't worth much other than it protects them from future lawsuits initiated by you. As a side note, my buddy sold his side project to his employer for $350,000 but granted he had customers. But he also worked on it shamelessly while on the clock and using company equipment and using a sales guy who worked at the company. I sh*t you not. If you do…
> But he also worked on it shamelessly while on the clock and using company equipment and using a sales guy who worked at the company. I sh*t you not.
Don't we all? In Minecraft, of course. The part about using the company's sales guy is great though -- I've never heard that one before.
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#14Sounds like an opportunity to ask to be made VP of your new product line with a compensation package either making up for your lost external client options or a commission is your company is selling it.
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#15I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, yadda yadda. > I’ve been to a lawyer and they were pretty vague. Find a better lawyer. You're definitely not the first person who has been in this situation. > No I haven’t worked on company equipment and always in my spare time. May not be relevant. Your employment agreement may have a clause that says the company has a claim, even if you worked on your own equipment and…
"> I’ve been to a lawyer and they were pretty vague.
Find a better lawyer. You're definitely not the first person who has been in this situation."
With my recent experiences with the legal system, this is good advice. There are so many people who work in the legal system that are grossly incompetent (lawyers, cops, judges). Not saying that specific lawyer is, but it doesn't look like a good sign if they specialize in IP law.
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#16Would you consider selling it ? If you don't have customers it probably isn't worth much other than it protects them from future lawsuits initiated by you. As a side note, my buddy sold his side project to his employer for $350,000 but granted he had customers. But he also worked on it shamelessly while on the clock and using company equipment and using a sales guy who worked at the company. I sh*t you not. If you do…
Absolutely, selling would be ideal. Basically I want more time to build it out and get customers and be in a stronger position to ask for a larger sum. At that point I could sell or raise. But I definitely don’t want to kick start an internal competing project.
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#17Thanks all- btw I'm looking for stories from people who've been in similar situations. I want to settle this with soft skills first.
For more context: yes the goal is to sell it to said big tech company (or quit and raise VC). We have some traction but we want a lot more users so we can ask for more $$.
I don't think the company will make this a new product and make me VP. It's a risky bet and big tech doesn't move that fast.
Thanks for the "get a lawyer" advice- that's a clear course of action I know how to pursue. I'm looking for real stories of how other people have handled this w/o legal.
I think there are other options available and I want to understand them. Thanks!
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#18What inspired you to share the details of your side project? Just curious.
I shared it with close colleagues bc it's a fun product to use for happy hours and game nights. And the direct user feedback was invaluable. It's fun/silly and doesn't fit with big tech vibe so I didn't expect anybody high up to care about it.
NPS was really high and it spread around the company naturally. Was all fine until this one VP made a big deal of it and now my entire management chain knows.
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#19Sounds like an opportunity to ask to be made VP of your new product line with a compensation package either making up for your lost external client options or a commission is your company is selling it.
That's what I thought at first too. But it's a new/fun product and it's way too risky for them to do that.
Story: I learned recently we're "doubling down" and "going hard" on a space. What that meant was 4 years of internal discussions to finally decide to commit to building a feature Facebook has had for 5 years already.
No way they're going to move fast enough or commit hard enough to make a team out of this. At best VP wants to advance their own career by showing up with interesting ideas.
Re: Help- my company wants to do my side project in house
#20Sounds like an opportunity to ask to be made VP of your new product line with a compensation package either making up for your lost external client options or a commission is your company is selling it.
That's what I thought at first too. But it's a new/fun product and it's way too risky for them to do that. Story: I learned recently we're "doubling down" and "going hard" on a space. What that meant was 4 years of internal discussions to finally decide to commit to building a feature Facebook has had for 5 years already. No way they're going to move fast enough or commit hard enough to make a team out of this. At be…
Well, it'd be a good way to show you are serious and committed while essentially making them be the ones to say no.