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Is it true that there are companies that demoed today but haven't launched - and that attendees had to sign an NDA to keep them 'off the record'? (source: the

by dotBen 16y ago

Is it true that there are companies that demoed today but haven't launched - and that attendees had to sign an NDA to keep them 'off the record'? (source: the tc.com post on this thread + twitter noise)

answerly 16y ago
There are companies that are off the record every in pretty much every YC batch. Attendees are asked to keep those companies "off the record". YC doesn't require any NDA that I am aware of. I'd expect that the risk of being excluded from future demo day events if you disclosed off the record companies would be a better deterrent than an NDA in this case.
Harj 16y ago
no. we do not make anyone sign an NDA. what happens is if a startup has not yet publicly launched and still wants to be able to give someone an exclusive/control how they launch then they mark themselves as off the record. what this prevents is someone briefly mentioning them in an article and then another publication refusing to write about them because it's already been 'covered'. if the startup doesn't care about this, then they keep themselves on record.
- seiji 16y ago
  refusing to write about them because it's already been 'covered' Does that happen? It seems impossibly childish.
  - staunch 16y ago
    It was a TechCrunch policy at one point. Maybe still.
waderoush 16y ago
It's true that there are 13 companies that pitched yesterday but haven't launched. And one that didn't pitch at all. Attendees at Demo Day aren't asked to sign NDAs. There's just a gentlemen's agreement (sexist term isn't it?) not to write, tweet, blog, etc. about the companies that haven't launched yet. With regard to the points Harj and others make in this thread about TechCrunch, I have no idea if they have a policy of turning up their nose at companies that have already been covered elsewhere. I certainly would never agree to YC's off-the-record request for that reason. I observe it because I think the YC companies deserve a chance to control how they make their first big public splash.

by dotBen 16y ago

answerly 16y ago

There are companies that are off the record every in pretty much every YC batch. Attendees are asked to keep those companies "off the record". YC doesn't require any NDA that I am aware of. I'd expect that the risk of being excluded from future demo day events if you disclosed off the record companies would be a better deterrent than an NDA in this case.

Harj 16y ago

no. we do not make anyone sign an NDA. what happens is if a startup has not yet publicly launched and still wants to be able to give someone an exclusive/control how they launch then they mark themselves as off the record. what this prevents is someone briefly mentioning them in an article and then another publication refusing to write about them because it's already been 'covered'. if the startup doesn't care about this, then they keep themselves on record.

seiji 16y ago
refusing to write about them because it's already been 'covered' Does that happen? It seems impossibly childish.
- staunch 16y ago
  It was a TechCrunch policy at one point. Maybe still.

waderoush 16y ago

It's true that there are 13 companies that pitched yesterday but haven't launched. And one that didn't pitch at all. Attendees at Demo Day aren't asked to sign NDAs. There's just a gentlemen's agreement (sexist term isn't it?) not to write, tweet, blog, etc. about the companies that haven't launched yet. With regard to the points Harj and others make in this thread about TechCrunch, I have no idea if they have a policy of turning up their nose at companies that have already been covered elsewhere. I certainly would never agree to YC's off-the-record request for that reason. I observe it because I think the YC companies deserve a chance to control how they make their first big public splash.