NDAs

I thought about writing a post on NDAs, but luckily the internets have already done it for me.

Read these:

  • NDAs are unnecessary because ideas are worthless — Less Everything Blog

    It’s worthless because ideas in general are worthless. Anyone can have a good idea, and they do. What has value is execution. The ability to take an idea and transform it into something real, something people love, something someone will pay for.

  • Why Most VC’s Don’t Sign NDAs

    In 20 years of high tech (as an entrepreneur, angel investor, and VC), I’ve never been involved in a situation where an NDA is enforced except in an M&A context. It’s simply a waste of paper and time for anything but M&A.

  • Rands In Repose: FriendDA

    But I want Phil to know that what I want to chat about is more than our average conversation. I want slightly more than a smidge of ceremony before I spill the beans about my bright idea and I call this ceremony the FriendDA. The FriendDA is a non-binding, warm blanket agreement that offers absolutely no legal protection.

  • Sacred Cow Dung: MYTH: NDAs are a Good Idea

    What is the entrepreneur really saying when requesting that executed NDA? […] b) “What I am about to reveal to you is so earth-shattering that it is a distinct possibility that you will drop everything in your life and try to steal my idea and do it without me.”

    and

    Let me explain it this way – Even if you were to go down to the corner of Broad and Wall Street “ground zero for the financial markets” and randomly pass out 1000 copies of your business plan, no one will ever execute that plan without you – no matter how great it is.

  • Why Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) Are Useless | Misanthropy Today

    The judge looks at it. “So you’re telling me that the founders of Google discussed search engines with other search engine companies before launching the biggest search engine in the world? I will not believe it! - This judge is very sarcastic.

I’ll still sign them from time to time, but my feelings about it are well covered in the articles above.

I have plenty of ideas (and a hundred or so domain names to match) that I want to pursue of my own. I’ll be lucky if I even get to start on half of them before time runs out, they become obsolete, and replaced by new ideas that pop up.