Tips for telling your boss about your side project | Hacker News Reader

Tips for telling your boss about your side project

2 pointsNeedBizHelp0003 comments

A year or two ago I had a good idea for a small startup in the same industry as my day job. I told my boss about the idea but we just haven't had the resources to execute it -- we have a ton of stuff pending on our existing projects. So, I've been working on it at home at night and on the weekends, and it's been pretty exciting so far.

I'd like my bosses support (at least some degree of it) and I want to be honest with him about the project. I don't intend to quit. Since our company does some investments in other companies, my ideal scenario would be if he gives me company resources to further develop it, in exchange for some equity.

Has anyone been in this situation before? What would be the best way to tell him about my project? What should I avoid saying?

It's tricky because if he thinks you are interested in starting your own thing, he may start looking for someone to replace you.

Did you sign and NDA/non-compete? Your boss may try to lay claim to your already completed work. Many companies own any related work that you've done, even if it's not on working hours.

This is why I've always just kept it hidden. Mostly because I hate working for other people. All my side projects were built with the intention of quitting. I finally quit last year, so it's not a problem for me anymore.

Since none of it was ever related to my workplace, I didn't think it would ever be a problem (the code base was also usually so different, they couldn't accuse me of sharing code).

In iWoz, Steve talks about developing the Apple I and Apple II while he was still employed at HP. He, too, wanted to be entirely honest and had no intentions of quitting. Basically, he just told them straight up what he was doing. I believe he even brought prototypes in for demonstration several times.

HP had no interest in laying claim to the designs. According to Steve, every department in HP had the opportunity. They all turned it down.

It would be hard to extrapolate from this, but your employer might just not be interested at all.

I have no personal history, but both Ross Perot, Sam Wiley and Charles Wiley quit jobs at IBM in the 60's because IBM was not interested in their side projects.

The guy at http://www.rohdesign.com had a boss who supported his side project.

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