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.