

Startup I work at just pivoted towards an idea I am designing in my spare time. - lowglow

The previous model for this start-up I am working at just went belly up and now they are considering pivoting towards something I am working on designing in my spare time. How does this affect the non-compete and non-disclosure stuff I signed with this company previously?
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bartonfink
How drastic was this pivot? I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect your position is
going to look worse the less the company had to pivot to "scoop" this idea.
Regardless of how close they were to your hobby before the switch, I think
that if you haven't made your hobby known already you need to do so now. After
all, your hobby experience might pay off in a big way if they know about it,
and there doesn't seem to be much down side to telling them in the interest of
not violating a non-compete.

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lowglow
They were a news aggregator before, and now they want to get into blogging
with the same model I was designing in my spare. So, in other words, a
completely different market.

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ebaysucks
Did they know about your blogging side project before deciding on the pivot?
Did you talk about the concept at work?

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mrschwabe
Perhaps you can be honest with them, and work out a deal where they can buy
the rights to everything you have done so far.

If your company has shifted focus to something you are already familiar with,
they should have an advantage in working with you even more.

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lowglow
I mentioned it when the idea was brought up, but nobody really said anything.

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HardyLeung
This is my opinion only, and I'm not a lawyer.

I read that as the management didn't think of you highly enough, or that they
don't think you could pull it off or that what you did is significant enough.
They may also have no incentive to dilute their shares for a workable solution
by their existing employees (NIH?). Anyway to look at it, it is bad.

In other comments others mentioned non-compete. At least in California non-
compete is pretty much unenforcible, but IP right protection is. During your
employment they do have IP rights to inventions you made unless (a) they are
not in the same field or (b) you have disclosed it as prior invention per a
typical employment agreement. Now that since (a) no longer applies, you better
make sure you notify them and file a formal amendment to your employment
agreement that whatever you worked on is considered prior invention. Or else
from now on they may claim the right to not just what you're about to do, but
also the hard work you've done. This is serious stuff. People and companies
had been destroyed by like this. Either way, I think you can no longer
continue your moonlight path on this very subject under their employment
(unless you get them to put an exception clause to your employment contract,
but I doubt they'll entertain that). I hope you work out something with them
so they use your stuff and reward you.

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jbhelms
In Cambridge Engineering, Inc. v. Mercury Partners they found that the non-
compete clause was so broad as to keep the employee from finding reasonable
work, so it was thrown out. In this case, you signed the non-compete agreement
while your company was performing A, now they want to perform B which is
something you do on the side. My guess would be that in order to enforce B
they would need you to sign a whole new NCA. I would check with a lawyer
though.

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imp
Make sure you follow everything in this article, and get something signed by
them: <http://blog.asmartbear.com/working-startup.html>

