

Ask HN: Standard employment agreement for startups? - billclerico

I took a look through SearchYC, but couldn't find any good links to standard employee agreements for startups.  Does anyone have an example they can share?  Looking for clauses like non-disclosure, assignment of IP, etc.<p>Thanks!
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andrewljohnson
It really depends on your funding situation and corporate structure, but we
incorporated a c-corp and we decided not to have employees (not even the
founders). We had all workers sign agreements to assign IP to the company, we
created restricted stock purchase agreements, and consulting agreements.

The corporate documents included standard by-laws and initial board meeting
minutes to assign various duties, etc.

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startupcomment
Andrew, You should consult a good accountant or attorney. The IRS has very
strict rules as to who may be compensated as an employee versus an independent
contractor or consultant. This is the case, partly, no doubt, to ensure that
employees are classified as such and the appropriate payroll taxes are shared
between the employee and the employer. As I understand it, officers of C corps
are essentially employees and may not be compensated as consultants for
services they render to a corporation. Assigning rights in IP and stock
purchase agreements are independent of the issue of whether or the someone
working for the company may be considered by the IRS as an employee or an
independent contractor.

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andrewljohnson
Thanks, but my attorney set up the company.

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ScottWhigham
Check out <http://docstoc.com> if you haven't already. You can find a lot of
agreements/contracts up there for inspiration.

