

What to do before leaving your job to found a startup - Furzel
https://www.fundastic.com/posts/92-5-things-to-do-before-you-quit-your-job-to-start-your-own-business#.U-0tEfldXuk

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specular
One more important item that isn't listed in the article:

Step 0 - Carefully read your current employment contract.

Employment contracts in the tech industry will often have provisions that
cover intellectual property assignment and other activities. These clauses
typically stipulate that any ideas, inventions, concepts, designs (etc.) that
you create during your full-time employment with a company are the sole and
exclusive property of the company (and not you, the direct inventor).
Depending upon the country/state/region, you may have some rights afforded to
you if you create (and document as such) any inventions outside of the
workplace without using any company trade secrets or technology, so long as
your invention does not relate to the current or demonstrably anticipated R&D
of the company.

Many companies have these types of clauses in their employment contracts for
defensive purposes to protect the company against copyright claims from its
employees. As a result, not all companies will enforce (via litigation) these
provisions and ultimately don't care if their employees are building and
releasing side projects in their spare time. However, some companies do care,
so you should be clear about your legal status before jumping to start your
company.

