How NOT to ask us to work on your project

We want to talk to as many people about the big (or small) ideas swirling in their heads as possible but sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot before we even get a chance to get started.

I could fill a book with things one could do to make us say

Thanks, but no thanks.

to an idea they’d like us to work on; I’ll start with this post.

One of the quicker ways for people to disqualify themselves are demands to sign legal documents that completely defy logic. Following is an e-mail we received recently and a concrete example of what not to do. Other than removing all the names from the text this is the e-mail verbatim.

Who wouldn’t want to jump at the chance of legally binding themselves to somebody they don’t know just to get the opportunity to submit a proposal for a chance to work on an iPhone app of some unknown functionality, followed by a few dozen more after we see how the first one does?

Here are a few lessons to be learned from this e-mail

1. We are not incentivized by the amount of work you are going to bring our way. We are incentivized by getting a chance to work on world changing ideas.
2. We would be happy to stop out at your office and bring the entire team to talk, however we’ll need a bit more than 24 hours notice. Currently the BitMethod team is six strong (Amanda included) and it takes some juggling on the calendar to find a time where all six of us are available at the same time. As an alternative if you are in a hurry you are more than welcome to stop by our office to talk (we have beer in the fridge).
3. Non-Compete: The nature of our business creates an extremely hard to navigate gray area in terms of non-compete agreements. A lot of work we do overlaps with projects we’ve already worked on in the past and will work on in the future. It would be impossible for us both financially and in terms of time it would consume to have to navigate this minefield were we agreeable to signing non-compete agreements. We’d much rather have relationships that are based on trust and mutual respect than having to buy our lawyer (sorry Sam) a new Jet Ski every time one of those comes around to bite us in the ass.
4. Non-Disclosure: We are not opposed to and have signed non-disclosure agreements in the past, however there needs to be a very compelling reason and the agreement needs to be very specific to the situation for us to sign one. If we don’t know what you will discuss with us and it’s one of the requirements for us to sit down and talk, we will generally decline to sign one. If you have a generic idea we’ve already heard from two others within the last three weeks, we will generally decline to sign one. Our general policy, whether a non-disclosure agreement is in force or not, is to not discuss anything we are currently working on or are in talks about with anyone that isn’t part of our company or directly part of the work being performed.

We are big believers in legal documents, they ritualize and preserve for posterity a mutually beneficial verbal promise the two parties have made to each other. If we have no way of quantifying mutual benefit chances are pretty good we are not signing a legally binding document with you.

If you find yourself wondering what the best way to protect your great idea is and it truly is a great idea, instead of demanding we sign meaningless documents before you will talk to us, you can talk to the greatest patent lawyer in the world, we’ll be happy to make the introduction.

About the author: Igor speaks business, tech, project management, and three other actual languages. He has a knack for hardware, networking, and keeping software guys on their toes.

Reach out to Igor Dobrosavljević at igor@bitmethod.com