Re:Dear tech giants, if you love someone set them free
by pauldix on Friday September 25, 2015 @03:59PM
(#10280340)
You're right, there are plenty of examples where that didn't happen. However, I've seen enough examples where it has. Enough that I think it's a bad idea to do side projects while you have full time employment. Unless those projects are strictly volunteer efforts for which you have no intention of turning into a commercial business.
You should take precautions of course--read inventions agreements very carefully--but I wouldn't at all go so far as to only do contracting. Especially if you live in California, as others have noted. Half the companies in SV were started by people working at Google or Facebook.