2. My friend ( at Fruit Inc ) was working with a undergrad friend from the East coast on a side project. The other friend posted a Craigslist ad needing help on the project and mentioned my friends credentials on the posting. Somehow a recruiter found out about it and so my friends VP called him … that he can’t do so and so, and that the fruit company owes everything and he needs to turn it all to them, and he can be terminated etc. And even after termination they will come after him. Long story short, he stopped working on the project and he was NOT terminated but he did eventually leave to a different company. (For context: the project my friend was moonlighting on was not some cutting edge secret or some hard problem )
Bottom line: If no one knows about your project you are fine. And if you decide to leave the company and work on your idea … might make sense to ensure that the start date of the code etc looks a little after your resignation.
Happy to answer if you have any other questions
I don’t think the policy changed as per se. It’s just they found proof of him trying to hire a part time help.
I had a co-worker around 2013 ish who just wanted to blog and put personal projects code to GitHub. It was not recommended and needed VP permission … basically a hassle.
I have a few coworkers from my team that cofounded companies and they too have 1-2 month gap after they quit and they all got funding :)