I am watching a friend in Texas go through this right now. He has been planning on leaving his current employer for some time, and his plan was to start a comp

I am watching a friend in Texas go through this right now. He has been planning on leaving his current employer for some time, and his plan was to start a company that is only vaguely in the same space (basically going after an open area of a market adjacent to his current employer's space, not competing directly) but is now enmeshed in a battle over a very broad non-compete that he signed with his current employer which employment lawyers are telling him is enforceable (even if he relocates to the valley, which was the plan) for a period of two years despite basically being broad enough to prevent him working for companies vaguely related (along the lines of "does it involve networking?"). It's still in progress, but it's one of those things that immediately rules Texas out as an option. It's really amazing how bad it is out there [1]. [1] https://www.beckreedriden.com/50-state-noncompete-chart-2/ https://www.beckreedriden.com/50-state-noncompete-chart-2/