PAANDA: The Professional Academic Alternative to Non-Disclosure Agreements | Hacker News Reader

PAANDA: The Professional Academic Alternative to Non-Disclosure Agreements

matt.might.net

78 pointsp4bl017 comments

I have never encountered a worthwhile idea after having signed an NDA. This is so anticlimactic. It's mostly business people who have no idea how to make a product and come with their "idea" that sent me NDAs.

Because, you know, the revenue projection you pulled out of thin air and put on your PPT before having even signed the first customer is an absolute trade secret.

Ever since I started to flat-out refuse to sign NDA's with a simple response I have eliminated a whole layer of unnecessary drama and complexity from my professional life.

"Please accept my apologies. Our corporate bylaws prohibit the use of NDA's."

Done. End of conversation. No need for a long and complicated explanation.

I used to sign NDAs before an interview. Every time I did, it was one of the stupidest ideas.

Now, I just pass. I use it as a filter to identify that the other person is an idiot.

For the rest of us that are not academics, there's http://friendda.org/ .

Here sign this NDA then tell us how to achieve this idea we have which we will own and you cannot speak of.

The funny part is when people get out of country or outsourced to other countries developers where they think an NDA or contract has much meaning or weight or that they care.

The real contract is money for services paid, while that is happening then it should continue, when that ends both groups/people should go about their business unanchored. This is why so many services companies try to go into products because the customer services/money exchange is much easier and well understood with simple ownership, which is own it upon payment but not the maker, just the product. Money for service and not ownership over everything.

A client or investor deserves to own any idea they fund and there will be NDAs which are ok. But when it starts limiting competition for x years for work on a 3 month contract it starts to get silly.

Eventually, whenever you become an employer. You would probably and most probably get the NDA signed. Esp., if you are a small business, because you are more at risk from your employees than competitors.

Although I am not in a sofware business, but what would it take a lead software developer to open up his own shop? Nothing a few bucks and the clients of his/her ex company.

In theory, nothing is stopping a lead developer from opening up their own shop.

In practice, unless you are comically shafting them or making it readily apparent you aren't going to help them achieve whatever exit they're looking for, the additional effort required to strike out by themselves is easily outweighed by the benefits of staying put.

Also, if your business is more at risk from employees than competitors, I think you need to seriously reconsider either your treatment of your employees, your business model, or your market analysis.

> Also, if your business is more at risk from employees than competitors, I think you need to seriously reconsider either your treatment of your employees, your business model, or your market analysis.

You are always at more risk from employees because they have multiple ways to hose you. Labor disputes, billing issues, intellectual property ownership agreements, etc.

This is why we have things like NDAs, Confidentiality Agreements, Patent Assignments, Stock Agreements, etc.

You don't have to be treating your employees badly for one to cause you issues. Even a disagreement about how much to sell the company for can cause problems, and that's not even a malicious reason to disagree.

> You are always at more risk from employees because they have multiple ways to hose you. Labor disputes, billing issues, intellectual property ownership agreements, etc.

That reasoning smells fallacious to me. Just because there are more kinds of risks, doesn't necessarily mean you're at more risk.

This is why I'm more afraid of poisonous animals than car accidents. There are many kinds of poisonous animals!

What business do you run? I'd like to avoid ending up there by accident, because it sounds like a place unfriendly to Labor.

Those sound like ways to hose your employees and make them dependent on you.

Funny, I was the lead dev at a company, and got out not very happy (not completely disgruntled either), it didn't occur to me one instant to even go back to the same sector. The customers were a pain to manage, the technical area was boring and google is crushing everybody.

Either the company has traction, and good luck to catch up, or it doesn't, and good luck to create a product that has traction.

Ideas are cheap. Implementations are what matter. If all of your competitors know your idea, but you implement a better product (or have better pricing, marketing, etc), you will win.

Luck is also a factor

To my understanding, there's been problems in the past with people soliciting feedback for ideas here, and some overseas shops seizing the idea and throwing more resources at it quicker and either being quicker to market or with more features functioning. Ideas aren't always cheap, but public ones are not not cheap, they're free.

> To my understanding, there's been problems in the past with people soliciting feedback for ideas here, and some overseas shops seizing the idea and throwing more resources at it quicker and either being quicker to market or with more features functioning.

My standard quote about this is: "If 4 guys and a dog in the Ukraine can do this, what's the business?"

Where have you read reports about this happening?

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