No I won't sign your NDA, here's why. • Hacker News Board

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#91

Post by wpietri » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 5:20 PM UTC

harryf wrote: post #70

saryant wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I just signed an employment agreement with a major development firm which included similar clauses. I was about to reject it and ask them to send one without such onerous restrictions when I got to the end of the section which included a large caveat "This section shall only apply to work performed on company time with company equipment," just in more legalese. As a graduating college student I've heard others…

> "This section shall only apply to work performed on company time with company equipment," The question then is who has to prove company time and equipment were used? Employer or employee? I ask because practically its going to be a grey zone. If you accessed your private gmail account during office hours and happened to see you have a potential customer lead for your out-of-hours project, are you in violation?

Technically, yes. Practically, it only matters if they decide to sue you and can prove you did it. Which will probably only happen if you end up doing something competitive. Or if they're dicks.

In your shoes, I'd keep them very separate. A friend has a work smartphone and a personal smartphone for just this reason. But beyond the technicalities, it's only polite to stay focused on your employer's work while you're at their place or otherwise on their dime.

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#92

Post by darkstar999 » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 10:15 PM UTC

j_baker wrote: post #33

jaysonelliot wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this idea that needs protection can be fully described in just four words, what, in your opinion, has prevented the "established players" from coming up with this idea already?

"A design is not finished when you have nothing left to add. It is finished when you have nothing left to take out." I'd imagine narrowing the idea down to 4 words took a lot of work.

"Instagram, but for _________"

Four words. Took me all day to come up with.

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#93

Post by chrisbennet » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 6:36 PM UTC

Once when I was asked for an NDA, I stood up, stuck out my hand (to shake) and said "THIS is my NDA." I got the contract.

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#94

Post by chrisbennet » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 6:38 PM UTC

"I have this idea for an awesone house design. If you build it I will cut you in for half the profits!"

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#95

Post by jplarson » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 9:54 PM UTC

joshu wrote: post #61

joshu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a vision of grandeur this sounds about right. "MY IDEA IS EARTHSHAKING, I can't possibly just TELL it to you. I am totally going to revolutionize the ..."

I can't believe this is getting so many upvotes. As an active angel I get emailed about 4 of these a day. Deletia, unfortunately.

Good question. I wrote this from the vantage point of developers, for whom NDAs is a different situation from that of investor types. There's intrinsically more precedent for an NDA to be rejected by someone potentially writing the checks than by someone potentially receiving them.

Accordingly, I reckon that this idea is much more well-trodden for investors such as yourself.

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#96

Post by jordhy » Fri, Apr 20, 2012, 3:13 AM UTC

ma2rten wrote: post #82

jordhy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your competitive advantage is your sword. Your barrier to entry is your shield or "moat". Typically, these should be hard to copy things that you can evolve over time to make your business stronger. Here are some examples... - Classic competitive advantages: 1. A strong sales force created by partnering which regional players that agreed to exclusively serve you (i.e. Groupon). In this case the barrier to entry is th…

An algorithm that we developed and academia thinks is not going to work (Google) That this an interesting thought. I am not sure it is really a classical competitive advantage, though. It's actually the first time I hear this. Is it really applicable in that many cases? You were giving Google as an example. Which algorithm were you referring to? I can think of these three from the top of my head: PageRank, MapReduce,…

Which is akin to saying that, while doing their Phds and writing papers, they didn't publish all their accrued knowledge in the field. And instead when on to apply that to Google. Obviously, algorithmic intelligence was key for Google, but systems implementations where also very important.

The secrecy they exercised was not only regarding to algorithms, but also to capacity, os design and infrastructure partnerships. They really did a good job at hiding the scale of their operations. Perhaps this secrecy was their biggest advantage, but take into account that they hid much more than algos. And still, the have a huge base of secret IP.

Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#97

Post by jonhacck » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 9:46 AM UTC

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Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#98

Post by jonhacck » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 9:48 AM UTC

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Re: No I won't sign your NDA, here's why.

#99

Post by jonhacck » Sun, Apr 22, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

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