Hot answers tagged nda
17
You could go for an NDA but the truth is that its unlikely to be stolen. So I suggest go through the business planning process which is first to look for a market for the product or service your idea covers. Validate it by asking potential customers that they would be willing to pay and get an idea of price. Best case is get people to commit to ordering ...
14
Your fear is a common mistake by new entrepreneurs. Check out my detailed blog post on the topic: http://blog.foundrs.com/2009/03/11/the-great-startup-idea-that-i-cant-reveal-yet/
Forget about the NDA
Start executing.
No one funds ideas. If I invested $100,000 in your idea today, what would you do? Often, the answer is: hire a developer. Ok, so now try ...
13
The short answer is NO!
Asking your investors to sign an NDA is impractical as most of them see dozens if not hundreds of ideas each years so they will never be able to manage their exposure if they have to sign an NDA for each idea they hear.
At the same time, asking an investor to sign an NDA is telling the investor that you are probably very concerned ...
9
You're correct in thinking that it ought to be possible to talk about opportunities without him revealing anything so secret that an NDA is required.
For me, I never sign NDAs up-front. Instead I tell them:
Don't tell me any secrets. If we get to the point in the conversation where it becomes important for you to reveal something private such as ...
8
Yes let go the idea. If you are smart you will have more. If you are not, this idea wasn't going to help you :)
In general, idea does not mean the other person will make money. Is there evidence the pure idea turned into revenue?
If he took your idea and actually worked on it, then he deserves to have most or all of the spoils. Ideas on their own are ...
7
This is a common problem for freelancers: the tire-kicker who extracts a lot of valuable consulting knowledge in the guise of paid work coming "some day soon."
Do I let go of my idea? I have no papers, so I assume I can't sue. Should I just chuck it up to a lesson to keep my mouth shut in future sale calls?
I think you have to let it go. An ...
7
The greatest limitation in enforcing your NDA against your French developers is that the provision stating that disputes must be resolved in the U.S. will be of little practical value.
Even if you obtain a judgment in the U.S., you will have to go to France to enforce it - a process that you probably would find to be far too expensive to justify.
I am ...
7
Yes. You get a chance to define in your NDA what exactly is protected under the non-disclosure and for what period of time. Normally, this covers what is defined as that business' proprietary information and how you will keep it, destroy it, and notify them of destruction at a later date.
It shouldn't cover the entire code, just the parts of it that are ...
6
Bill, I think your question has been answered already, but I want to make one point.
I don't know anything about the laws in Greece, but in the US, what you're doing is risky. If I were you, I would form my business before signing the NDA. Then sign the NDA as the business, not yourself personally. One of the benefits of forming a company is the ability to ...
6
At this stage you should not be worry about having your idea being stolen because if you don't share with people, you won't be able to get the founding team and the more people know the better chances you have in getting funding. The best advice I can give you is about my own self. I came up with a idea about few months ago. So I wanted to make sure I can ...
5
I'll refrain from offering any opinion on whether such a generic, vague NDA is legally enforceable in California. I think that's a matter for an attorney familiar with Californian law.
Instead I'll focus on something else:
The email is very general and simply states that the idea is for a game.
In my opinion, this marks her as a rank amateur. I ...
5
John gave good advice. Ideas are a dime a dozen, it's all about implementation. The best thing you can do for yourself is share your idea with as many people as possible, and start validating that you have an idea worth investing in. From my little experience in the VC world, they aren't in the idea-funding business, but are looking for ideas with traction ...
5
It's pretty rare that you need 8 pages for an NDA so that would cause me concern right off the bat. Remember that just because it says it's an NDA at the top nothing stops someone from putting many other clauses in it that have nothing to do with a normal NDA. The easiest way to solve this is have them sign your NDA instead of you signing his. Contact me ...
5
While safeguarding the core idea and strategic direction of your concept is important, asking a prospective technical co-founder to sign confidentiality or nondisclosure agreements is not at all practical.
The key to building and attracting any talent to your new startup idea is to create an enticing enough pitch out of it. Perfect the pitch and it will ...
5
If you are consulting an attorney about possibly hiring that attorney, then the attorney-client privilege starts immediately and the attorney is obligated to keep everything in confidence. You don't need an NDA and many attorneys would refuse to sign one.
In terms of what you need to disclose, disclose everything the attorney needs to know to do the work ...
5
You can't make them sign anything, you can only ask.
They'll likely refuse.
If your concept is so simple to set up, an NDA will be worthless as someone can copy your idea the moment you launch.
Almost nobody has the time to steal an execute your idea.
Nobody can steal your vision and ability to execute.
Stop worrying and starting building. But only after ...
5
You should make every new hire sign something that states that the person isn't violating any prior NDA in the person's performance of services for you, and that the person will not disclose any information to you in violation of an NDA. That's a standard representation in an employment agreement. You could show your form of employment agreement to the ...
4
From an employer's point of view, careless or malicious disclosure can put the entire company at risk and can make owners legally liable. I agree with Jesper that an NDA should not be draconian but asking all new employees to sign an NDA is both reasonable and prudent.
Some things that a software company may want to protect from disclosure:
...
4
If she makes an offer, and there is consideration and acceptance then I believe that the contract is legal. Points to consider
A NDA wont stop copycats
Unless you can afford the court costs an NDA has little value, but if she had the money she would employ you as a contractor
Jesper's point that her request makes her appear like an amateur (as such she ...
4
VC's have other ways of screwing you. But, if you are really worried about it, dry to get as much done without taking money as you can. Even if it is just wire frames. The other route is a friends and family round.
I tend to agree with the board. The word would quickly get out that a VC is stealing ideas. Another thing you can do is find out what ...
3
Lots of startups try doing "stealth mode," which frankly is a load of crap. If you're doing something that CAN easily be replicated, then you're either going to win on quality or speed; and if it can't easily be replicated, then you don't have much to worry about, do you?
As John said, don't give away the "secret sauce," but when investors hear the words, ...
3
The first thing you need to understand is that ideas are a dime a dozen. They are virtually worthless on their own. An implementation of your idea might have some value. How do you know whether or not 50 other people have had the same idea, and even now 20 are finishing their app?
If you have a brilliant idea you need to start working on it now.
You will ...
3
I don't think there is a hard-and-fast rule on this. I have commonly seen 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 year and perpetual NDAs.
Some jurisdictions don't permit certain types of perpetual civil agreements, so in some countries a perpetual NDA might actually be weaker than one with a finite lifespan.
IMHO it depends. I don't like NDA's much, so on the rare occasions that ...
3
I don't think an NDA and a security breach resulting in compromised data is the same thing. What exactly does the NDA say?
I doubt that "transferring" the NDA to the company will put you out of the role - since you are the company and likely can be shown that you acted in a negligent manner, etc. I don't think negligence will be protected within a ...
3
A tech company should probably require all employees to sign an NDA (or the employment contract should include a confidentiality clauses).
The NDA must be reasonable, short and easy to understand.
Now, when to ask a potential employee to sign an NDA is a little tricky, until you look at it logically.
Every contact is built on some degree of trust, if a ...
3
Fill in your name where the company name (party to the agreement) normally would be.
No need to fill in the title (which is used to show, for example, that an individual is President of a company); it will be pretty clear that you are an individual, rather than a business entity.
Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice and does not establish ...
3
and welcome to this site! :-)
Hmn. Actually that's a good question -- I don't know if there is a 'right' way to fill out the extra fields that don't apply. I would probably just leave them blank I think... It must be clear that you're the one entering into the agreement, so your name must be in the "main" field of the form (presumably called "Company"). You ...
3
I am not a big fan of NDAs and I also do see a trend with experienced/seasoned entrepreneurs wasting less time on lawyer-enriching docs and rather practicing good selective information sharing. Ideas are worthless without execution and execution is something you can't really copy.
Another issue: enforcing NDA is expensive and time consuming, something most ...
3
Your own question lists very important clues:
Single owner/funder. Most of the times a bad sign. You need to keep some perspective and a high level of discussion in a startup. The owner (especially if he's alone) needs to have a good network to complement his own skill set and culture.
No technical experience in the management team. See previous point. ...
3
In my 15+ years of experience as a freelance journalist I've adopted the practice of talking as much as possible to as many people as possible about my ideas and I can only think of one occasion where someone outright stole an idea from me. Overall being vocal and non secretive about my ideas have given me a lot of quality input allowing me to sharpen good ...
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