Ask HN: Conflict of interest? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Conflict of interest?

My company is shopping around for a software package. They've had a hard time finding what they want, in fact they've turned down a few packages, for various reasons.

Would it be a conflict of interest by making what they want and trying to sell it to them? I have a good idea of their budget.

if it's not a conflict, how should I approach my employer?

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Since there is no product you can sell them, there is no conflict right now. Particularly if you are not involved in the selection processes.

If and how you pitch it depends on the corporate culture, your relationships to the decision makers, and the amount of money involved. Keep in mind that they could make writing the software part of your job requirements.

As an aside, I don't recommend doing work on spec for a single client.

conflict of interest, no.

but they might not be agreeable to it, depending on how their HR department is and what your employee contract looks like. they may say "oh, you can build it? well build it for us and we'll just keep paying your salary"

Chances are, your contract probably stipulates that any work or ideas you come up with whilst being an employee are their property. If that's the case, ask your friend or a family member to approach them for you.

At most companies, that doesn't count for the things you do outside of work.

True but, as you said, that's "most companies" and not "all companies"

What's your point?

The point would be to do your due diligence and find out what your contract has and to not leave it to chance. I guess I could have clarified that a bit but I expected that people would have been able to infer what I meant. I have no need or desire to over-answer in every situation.

My comment was in reply to gshannon's thought that most companies own all work/ideas. Your reply to my comment made no sense. Thanks for clarifying though. I didn't think you had a point.

I must be unlucky then, out of three dotcoms all but one had full rights to any IP I came up with whilst an employee.

That's an odd arrangement but I doubt illegal. Since you have to sell it to them anyway it seems really unlikely you are going to get in any contractual trouble.

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