18 ms·

Its all fun and games until Google decides they own your startup since you were working on it during "their time."

quickthrower2 3y ago
Yeah naming your work laptop “girlfriend” wont get you out of this one
znpy 3y ago
Meh, it has to be proven in court. Those agreement are often scarecrows. They aren’t valid in california afaik, and surely they aren’t valid in most of european nations.
- jedberg 3y ago
  Non-competes aren't enforceable, but IP agreements absolutely are.
- VectorLock 3y ago
  Being proven in court is all well and good until Google jams you up in the case for so long and costs you so much for lawyers they effectively torpedo your startup. He's effectively banking that Google will be so big they won't notice - just like only working 1 hour per day.
gretch 3y ago
source: I work at G There's a process where you declare this work. And if it gets approved, you have ammunition to back you in a court case if it ends up going to such lengths. I have had projects approved - questions that get asked are about e.g. conflict of interest or actual competition. Google actually doesn't want to own your fruit-stand-in-the-park business. This is intended to prevent situations like the zuck/winklevoss case (just to name 1 publicly well known example).
- VectorLock 3y ago
  No, they don't care to own most people's weekend projects. They wouldn't have any claim on that anyways. But when someone is spending the time Google pays for to work on a startup, I would THINK they would care about that. Or maybe Google's internal processes is okay with them doing 1 hr/day of work "as long as they're getting done whats expected of them."
  - gretch 3y ago
    > work on a startup, I would THINK they would care about that The decision is not made based on whether the work is a "startup" or not. It's not even clear what a startup is - some companies that are worth more than $1 Billion are still somehow "startup". It's based on conflict of interest, legitimate business competition, leaking/selling sensitive information, and other concrete criteria, in my opinion, are quite fair. It does not depend on whether it is a "startup" or not
    - VectorLock 3y ago
      Yeah the startup part is not important, its all the other stuff, but thanks explaining what a startup is/isn't.

Yeah naming your work laptop “girlfriend” wont get you out of this one

znpy 3y ago

Meh, it has to be proven in court. Those agreement are often scarecrows. They aren’t valid in california afaik, and surely they aren’t valid in most of european nations.

jedberg 3y ago
Non-competes aren't enforceable, but IP agreements absolutely are.
VectorLock 3y ago
Being proven in court is all well and good until Google jams you up in the case for so long and costs you so much for lawyers they effectively torpedo your startup. He's effectively banking that Google will be so big they won't notice - just like only working 1 hour per day.

gretch 3y ago

source: I work at G There's a process where you declare this work. And if it gets approved, you have ammunition to back you in a court case if it ends up going to such lengths. I have had projects approved - questions that get asked are about e.g. conflict of interest or actual competition. Google actually doesn't want to own your fruit-stand-in-the-park business. This is intended to prevent situations like the zuck/winklevoss case (just to name 1 publicly well known example).

VectorLock 3y ago
No, they don't care to own most people's weekend projects. They wouldn't have any claim on that anyways. But when someone is spending the time Google pays for to work on a startup, I would THINK they would care about that. Or maybe Google's internal processes is okay with them doing 1 hr/day of work "as long as they're getting done whats expected of them."
- gretch 3y ago
  > work on a startup, I would THINK they would care about that The decision is not made based on whether the work is a "startup" or not. It's not even clear what a startup is - some companies that are worth more than $1 Billion are still somehow "startup". It's based on conflict of interest, legitimate business competition, leaking/selling sensitive information, and other concrete criteria, in my opinion, are quite fair. It does not depend on whether it is a "startup" or not
  - VectorLock 3y ago
    Yeah the startup part is not important, its all the other stuff, but thanks explaining what a startup is/isn't.