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Business

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Posted by Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) - Opinions?

Just finished up the Freelancing course by Pasan Premaratne and I was wondering what people think about signing an NDA before even discussing a project with a client or even having the client fill out a questionnaire about their project.

agreatdaytocode
agreatdaytocode
24,757 Points

I never have and never will.

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

Any reasoning behind that? Bad things happen in the past? Religious reasons?

agreatdaytocode
agreatdaytocode
24,757 Points

Honestly, I find it to be a waste of time. and it shoutes "I don't trust you". However, when dealing with large companies you don't have much choice lol. For now I don't find it necessary.

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

Thanks for the input. The reason I asked is because a client who wants to design a pretty basic ecommerce site wants me and my colleague to sign one to protect her idea. It's nothing revolutionary and she definitely isn't the first to market. She provided a generic one she wanted me to sign that she found on the internet somewhere and it was super super restrictive. I told her I was going to make edits and she was ok with that.

agreatdaytocode
agreatdaytocode
24,757 Points

Just be careful, it sounds like she is paranoid.

2 Answers

Ryan Carson
Ryan Carson
23,287 Points
Ryan Carson
Ryan Carson
23,287 Points

I would say that it's general practice now to not sign an NDA. Some people do it but it's viewed as an amateur thing to do because the value isn't usually in the idea (unless it's something extremely proprietary, like a formula/equation/method) it's in all the hard work of executing on the idea.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

In general no.

Here's a good discussion on why

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Mistakes-That-Startups-Make-4-1812835.S.104920864

My favorite quote from that article is ...

> You should create a brief description of your startup that describes why your startup is valuable without revealing your secret sauce. You also need a 3 minute description that you can tell anyone.