41–50 of 153 posts
I'm assuming you're not competing with your employer, nor are you building your startup on your employer's time or with your employer's resources, in which case there's nothing wrong with this approach ethically.
>employed under employment contract to assign both moral rights and intellectual property to their employer. This is usually when you're on company time with company assets. If you're at home/coffee shop and off the clock and on your assets/pc its your IP. Do you have a contract with current employer that has this specific language? I would understand a term for a non-compete agreement, but what you're saying does no…
You don’t tell them.
Monish Pabrai used to be a software engineer and launched a company while he was working. This company grew to a few million in annual revenue. He‘s also the author of two investing books and sat down for a lunch with Warren Buffet and regularly has dinner with Carlie Munger.
Depends where you live. In California, there are limits to what your employer can force you to assign to them. Roughly speaking, if you do it on your own time and with your own equipment, and it doesn't relate to your employer's current/predicted business, it's yours. [1] Whether or not you're in CA, you should consider speaking to an employment lawyer in your jurisdiction to find out the relevant details. 1: https:/…
>employed under employment contract to assign both moral rights and intellectual property to their employer. This is usually when you're on company time with company assets. If you're at home/coffee shop and off the clock and on your assets/pc its your IP. Do you have a contract with current employer that has this specific language? I would understand a term for a non-compete agreement, but what you're saying does no…
Yeah my contract is very wide in my opinion, given there is always some level of overlap when developing software. Unfortunaly I signed it unchallenged when needing employment during the pandemic :( Below is an excerpt from my contract: We understand that lots of our employees have tech related ideas that they work on outside of working hours. In a case where your idea overlaps or conflicts with the work of said comp…
"Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the CEO"
This sounds like a conversation.
If they accept you go through the red tape of having your idea declared as exempt and you are fine.
If they don't accept you need to choose between your current employer and your ideas.
I tend to choose employers and contracts based on whether this is doable or not.
Don't tell your employer. Don't incorporate until after you've quit your job. If you want to launch before quitting your job, consider using a merchant of record (e.g. Paddle) so you don't even need to incorporate. I'm assuming you're not competing with your employer, nor are you building your startup on your employer's time or with your employer's resources, in which case there's nothing wrong with this approach eth…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah my contract is very wide in my opinion, given there is always some level of overlap when developing software. Unfortunaly I signed it unchallenged when needing employment during the pandemic :( Below is an excerpt from my contract: We understand that lots of our employees have tech related ideas that they work on outside of working hours. In a case where your idea overlaps or conflicts with the work of said comp…
My non-lawyer take: "Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the CEO" This sounds like a conversation. If they accept you go through the red tape of having your idea declared as exempt and you are fine. If they don't accept you need to choose between your current employer and your ideas. I tend to choose employers and contracts based on whether this is doable or not.
Usually there is a business process to declare outside interests that involves approvals from your direct manager and his manager and doesn't require you to talk to the CEO directly.
They keep a central register of declarations that the CEO rubber stamps.
Maybe you can ask HR/Legal about getting that instituted.
If this doesn't work it might be a clear signal that your current employer might not be aligned with your long term goals.
Don't tell your employer. Don't incorporate until after you've quit your job. If you want to launch before quitting your job, consider using a merchant of record (e.g. Paddle) so you don't even need to incorporate. I'm assuming you're not competing with your employer, nor are you building your startup on your employer's time or with your employer's resources, in which case there's nothing wrong with this approach eth…
Can you explain a bit about the Paddle thing and not needing to incorporate?
In exchange they take a heftier cut than what you'd get if you used a service like Stripe.