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Ask HN: Shall I share my product ideas to the startup I work for

5 points by throwaway1812 10y ago

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). 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. I was refining these product ideas in my head in case funding went short and was in need of a plan B. 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/needed. I can see 3 course of action: 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't burn any bridges and have possibly a passive income generating product. 2. Leave the company and work on these products for a while until my savings are gone and/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. 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/value for these products then I have given it away a little bit to this company. 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 "hey lets build this cool car sharing product to disrupt the taxi industry", what would the CEO/founder most likely say? Is there value in the company for side projects?

rubyfan 10y ago
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.
sogen 10y ago
Some startups are the result of successful side projects, i.e. Unsplash. But if you have no equity
saluki 10y ago
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!
- throwaway1812 10y ago
  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.
ezekg 10y ago
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 10y ago
  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?
  - ezekg 10y ago
    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 10y ago
      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.

5 points by throwaway1812 10y ago

rubyfan 10y ago

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.

sogen 10y ago

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

saluki 10y ago

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!

throwaway1812 10y ago
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.

ezekg 10y ago

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 10y ago
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?
- ezekg 10y ago
  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 10y ago
    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.