In terms of personal employment, yes California is very leery of non-competes. In terms of business contracts, absolutely not. If you build a product for a cust

In terms of personal employment, yes California is very leery of non-competes. In terms of business contracts, absolutely not. If you build a product for a customer, you can agree not to build a similar product for said customer's competitors. This is not unusual. Practical example: one customer was a cruise line, and the company had to tactfully ask if building a similar product for a hotel didn't violate the contract. As opposed to, say, a school which would not reasonably compete with cruise lines - Semester at Sea notwithstanding. If you don't want to agree to this, you don't need to sign a contract not to work with competitors. But of course, the customer is probably not going to want to pay as much if they know that they can very quickly lose whatever edge they're getting.