Re:How to do a startup in your spare time
by sailfast on Monday December 09, 2013 @10:56AM
(#6874826)
Agreed on the communication side - on my end from an integrity perspective it was important to be completely up front about the situation. Also critical because of possible intellectual property concerns down the road. Note: This could cause problems including a "stop work" guideline from your employer, but I preferred to cause the problems up front so I could handle them effectively and keep things transparent.
>> Our tech agreement lets someone list a set of technologies they own that they are bringing with them, and explicitly renounces the company's ownership of them. It's also useful to understand and review any agreements you sign when accepting employment.
Totally. One thing to keep in mind though is that the exclusion applies only for work done before joining the company [1]. Even if you list something there, if you continue working on it, you may still have an issue.
Further, all IP agreements I have come across, put a legal requirement on you to disclose any new IP you generate while employed to the employer within the prescribed time-limit even if you think if belongs to you.
[1] In all cases I have come across. IANAL.
"- Talk as little as possible. Even if you have a very transparent, honest relationship with you boss. If your boss might find detrimental you to have a startup, don't talk at all."
I think it is better to talk about the possibility of a startup on your own time during the interview process. This has the side effect of filtering out jobs with controlling bosses. (You may not have this luxury, though.)
Our tech agreement lets someone list a set of technologies they own that they are bringing with them, and explicitly renounces the company's ownership of them. It's also useful to understand and review any agreements you sign when accepting employment.
I have a side project that I told my boss about when accepting employment. And I started another one while employed.
I guess it depends on whether you think forgiveness is better than permission, and how your boss is, but as a manager I would rather know someone has a startup project.
You shouldn't consider a startup on the side without reading and understanding this onstartups.com q&a: http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/19422/if-im-working-...
One other important point: if your startup is orthogonal to your current work, everyone is probably going to be more comfortable. If not, I'd seriously consider postponing the startup, just to avoid a sticky situation where your employer is concerned you took domain knowledge/contacts from your day job to improve your startup.
All the rest of this advice is fantastic. A clear separation of startup and day job is important.