
Ask HN: Shall I share my product ideas to the startup I work for - throwaway1812
I have been working (contracting) remotely happily for a startup company for a couple of years. It looks like their funding is good and they will get enough cash to pay me for another year at least. This is a really small shop, I am more or less the only developer there (we have external contractors on demand).<p>However while working for them I had a few ideas of product not directly related to their line of work but inspired by work I did for them.<p>I was refining these product ideas in my head in case funding went short and was in need of a plan B.<p>I am keen to pursue these ideas but am wondering what the best course of action is. My main problem is that I am a family man and my after work time is very limited + the pay is attractive&#x2F;needed.<p>I can see 3 course of action:<p>1. Do not tell them about it, and try to work on the product on my own time. Risk: I dont have enough time and nothing gets produced. Advantages: I don&#x27;t burn any bridges and have possibly a passive income generating product.<p>2. Leave the company and work on these products for a while until my savings are gone and&#x2F;or I have validated that there is a need for them. Risk: my stress level go too high and my family suffers. Advantages: I work on things that excite me.<p>3. Talk to them about it and offer them to pay me while I develop and ship some of these MVP and we analyse the result in a few month. Risk: they now know that the startup I work for is not my commitment 100%. Risk2: if it there is revenue&#x2F;value for these products then I have given it away a little bit to this company.<p>I guess I was wondering about the option 3: how realistic does it sound to people working in startups. If someone at Airbnb came in and said &quot;hey lets build this cool car sharing product to disrupt the taxi industry&quot;, what would the CEO&#x2F;founder most likely say? Is there value in the company for side projects?
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rubyfan
Do not share your ideas unless you own a significant portion of the startup
and believe the idea would help toward the primary offering you are working
toward. If you are hired help with 1-2% stake in the venture, keep your ideas
to yourself.

Option 1 is the least likely to burn a bridge over an idea that may not work
out. Option 1 also offers the most retention of your IP and highest likelihood
you will profit from your idea and execution. Make sure not to work on your
idea on their time or equipment.

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saluki
You're a contractor I would go with option 1.

Make sure you own 100% of the IP, don't work on it with their time/materials
or reuse their code, etc.

Option 1: if it's a good idea own it and the profits. If you have limited time
think about contracting out part of the work. If it's B2B and something that
can generate revenue quickly this will be easier. If it's an idea that will
require lots of time/effort/resources to be profitable you might reconsider
partnering with your company/founders but I would do this after your contract
it up.

Option 2: contracting is paying the bills keep working with them. If your
runway with them is 1 year that gives you time to get your idea off the
ground, save and plan to work on it full time in a year if it's generating
revenue.

Option 3, this could work but you don't own a significant percentage of the
company so you're giving away your idea/profits. Sounds easier to own 100% on
your own, especially at first.

Listen to StartupsForTheRestofUs.com also checkout
[http://www.microconf.com/past-videos/](http://www.microconf.com/past-
videos/).

Good luck in 2017!

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throwaway1812
Thank you for taking the time to answer.

Another problem I can see with option 1 is that I'd have to be quite careful
talking about the potential product (so no blog posts under my name, no
facebook posts etc.

I'd have to create some persona, which is not a big deal but it adds up some
challenges.

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ezekg
Having done the latter, I would make sure that if you do go that route that
you are prepared to _partner_ with your employer(s). I learned the hard way
that I wasn't prepared for how much our ideas/motivations would differ. In the
end, I burned out and sold them the entire IP.

~~~
throwaway1812
How would you suggest a partnership agreement could look like. At the moment I
am a contractor, but they are in the process of offering me 2% of the company
(still not signed or anything).

Your case is very interesing to me, what would you have done differently
looking back?

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ezekg
It's _your idea_ and they're offering _you_ 2%? Or am I just misunderstanding?
I got 40% of net profits over all time, as long as I was actively working on
maintaining the software, in return for the ability to develop the app on
company time over 6 mo + marketing efforts.

What the agreement looks like is up to you; the contracts that were offered to
me had ridiculous clauses that were heavily in their favor, mostly because
they were 'stock' contracts which they (ellegedly) didn't even read for them
themselves. (I know.)

When I sold them the IP out of frustration, I had still not signed a contract
that I was happy with. (One version of our founders agreement had me _owing
them $40,000 in initial contributions_ — if I were to sign that, I could have
royally screwed my family.)

All I'm saying is that a business partnership is more than just a few meetings
and agreements. You need to agree with how they do business. If it doesn't
align with what you want for your product, you may want to take a step back
and evaluate whether it is a good decision to get into bed with them.

Let me know if you have any additional questions!

Edit: If I were to do it differently, I would have done everything by myself.
It would have taken longer, yes, but I would still be working on a product of
which I had a huge passion for. It sucks that it didn't work out how I thought
it would.

~~~
citruspi
I don't think he's told them about his ideas yet (otherwise there wouldn't be
much of a point to this Ask HN).

I think he's saying that his employer (the startup company) is in the process
of offering him 2% of the startup company.

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sogen
Some startups are the result of successful side projects, i.e. Unsplash. But
if you have no equity

