The California non-compete law has a carve-out for exactly this case. I signed one of these after selling a company in California in 2014. It was pretty reasona

The California non-compete law has a carve-out for exactly this case. I signed one of these after selling a company in California in 2014. It was pretty reasonable--restriction from doing something substantially similar to the business for 3 years or for one year after leaving employment at the buyer.