(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Moonlighting and Ruff Riders
Hasan Luongo has a nice post about The Dangers of Moonlighting. In his case, the problem is that he was fully employed at the time he founded his business. There’s some nit-picking to be done about how much of his business activities occurred during “work hours” and how many did not, and so forth, but let’s hand wave all of that.
The issue is this: employers want every last penny they can squeeze out of you. That’s how our capitalist system works: The corporation’s business is to maximize return on capital, and you are “human capital.” No surprise there.
In my twenty years of business experience, Growing a Business is absolutely the best book on founding and running a business organically that I have ever read. And I read a lot of books. “Growing a Business” is not about scoring business coups or raising money. It is not about sales tactics or innovation. It is about growing a business step by step, customer by customer. It is about expanding at a sane rate and getting rich the old-fashioned way: one satisfied customer at a time.
Growing a Business is a must-read for anyone who wants to build a business rather than “do a deal.”
Some people have pointed out that you ought to obtain a release from your employer before starting a business on the side. I think this is excellent advice. I will go further: before starting employment with a firm, ask them how they would handle the “hypothetical” case of you coming up with an idea.
Some employers will decide not to hire you just because you asked this question. What does that say? Some employers will tell you about how they make room for entrepreneurship within the company, and will back it up with stories about how some of their best new lines of businesses were created by individuals with ideas, and not by management committees. What does that say? And some will just shrug their shoulders.
I have two actual experiences I can share. The first was when I was employed by KL Group. I was working on the JProbe line of Java development tools. That line of business was created because they were working on Java components (a business that didn’t really pan out), and a fellow named Richard Fogel noticed that there were no decent Java performance profilers.
So he wrote one. And so the company ran with the idea. Jumping straight to the happy ending, Quest bought the company largely to get the product line and the development team that produced it.
Another time I was interviewing with a firm I shall call the “Ruff Riders” after a tee shirt I once saw wrapped tightly around the very muscular chest of a diver on vacation in Roatan. Any ways, I was fiddling about with my ongoing (and so far futile) attempts to predict the outcome of software development projects based on empirical evidence.
So I mentioned this in the interview and asked how the rights to things I invented in my own time and on my own computers would work. The president was direct. Ruff Riders would own it all. And just to be clear, their draconian policy was not intended to steal my ideas, it was to discourage their employees from thinking about anything except furthering their business. His perspective was that when you became a Rider, you dedicated yourself to Ruffness 24/7/365.
I can’t say I think he was being unreasonable, but I can tell you that as I was driving away from his office, I placed a call to my Estate Agent and put my house up for sale. There was absolutely no way that I ever wanted to be in a position where I had no alternative but to give my every creative thought away in exchange for a fixed salary.
Hasan Luongo has a nice post about The Dangers of Moonlighting. In his case, the problem is that he was fully employed at the time he founded his business. There’s some nit-picking to be done about how much of his business activities occurred during “work hours” and how many did not, and so forth, but let’s hand wave all of that.
The issue is this: employers want every last penny they can squeeze out of you. That’s how our capitalist system works: The corporation’s business is to maximize return on capital, and you are “human capital.” No surprise there.
In my twenty years of business experience, Growing a Business
is absolutely the best book on founding and running a business organically that I have ever read. And I read a lot of books. “Growing a Business” is not about scoring business coups or raising money. It is not about sales tactics or innovation. It is about growing a business step by step, customer by customer. It is about expanding at a sane rate and getting rich the old-fashioned way: one satisfied customer at a time.Growing a Business
is a must-read for anyone who wants to build a business rather than “do a deal.”Some employers will decide not to hire you just because you asked this question. What does that say? Some employers will tell you about how they make room for entrepreneurship within the company, and will back it up with stories about how some of their best new lines of businesses were created by individuals with ideas, and not by management committees. What does that say? And some will just shrug their shoulders.
I have two actual experiences I can share. The first was when I was employed by KL Group. I was working on the JProbe line of Java development tools. That line of business was created because they were working on Java components (a business that didn’t really pan out), and a fellow named Richard Fogel noticed that there were no decent Java performance profilers.
So he wrote one. And so the company ran with the idea. Jumping straight to the happy ending, Quest bought the company largely to get the product line and the development team that produced it.
Another time I was interviewing with a firm I shall call the “Ruff Riders” after a tee shirt I once saw wrapped tightly around the very muscular chest of a diver on vacation in Roatan. Any ways, I was fiddling about with my ongoing (and so far futile) attempts to predict the outcome of software development projects based on empirical evidence.
So I mentioned this in the interview and asked how the rights to things I invented in my own time and on my own computers would work. The president was direct. Ruff Riders would own it all. And just to be clear, their draconian policy was not intended to steal my ideas, it was to discourage their employees from thinking about anything except furthering their business. His perspective was that when you became a Rider, you dedicated yourself to Ruffness 24/7/365.
I can’t say I think he was being unreasonable, but I can tell you that as I was driving away from his office, I placed a call to my Estate Agent and put my house up for sale. There was absolutely no way that I ever wanted to be in a position where I had no alternative but to give my every creative thought away in exchange for a fixed salary.
Comments on “Moonlighting and Ruff Riders”:
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I'm not clear on how the interview caused you to sell your house?
I walked into the interview with 3-6 months worth of cash and line of credit at current burn rate (without dipping into my retirement nest egg).
I had a certain expectation of what kinds of jobs were available and how long it would take to find one. based on the combination of my cash flow and probability of finding a job I would like, 3-6 months was more than enough time.
After the interview, I revised my estimate of the likelihood of finding the perfect job downwards, which changed my estimate of whether 3-6 months of burn was appropriate. Selling the house raised my cash and lowered my burn in one go.
And in a typical twist of fate, I found two much better jobs almost immediately after I signed the offer of purchase. This kind of thing happens a lot: when you have no pressure, you are more confident, poised, comfortable, and that makes you more attractive as a candidate.
I walked into the interview with 3-6 months worth of cash and line of credit at current burn rate (without dipping into my retirement nest egg).
I had a certain expectation of what kinds of jobs were available and how long it would take to find one. based on the combination of my cash flow and probability of finding a job I would like, 3-6 months was more than enough time.
After the interview, I revised my estimate of the likelihood of finding the perfect job downwards, which changed my estimate of whether 3-6 months of burn was appropriate. Selling the house raised my cash and lowered my burn in one go.
And in a typical twist of fate, I found two much better jobs almost immediately after I signed the offer of purchase. This kind of thing happens a lot: when you have no pressure, you are more confident, poised, comfortable, and that makes you more attractive as a candidate.
It's unfortunate you chose "Ruff Riders" to illustrate your story because the motto of Ruff Riders is "Live Strong, Be Free," which is the exact opposite of what you're talking about.
Your employer has no right to ideas you create on your own time using your own tools.
On the other hand, I would find it very odd for a potential employee to talk about his/her entrepreneurial goals while interviewing for a corporate job.
Your employer has no right to ideas you create on your own time using your own tools.
On the other hand, I would find it very odd for a potential employee to talk about his/her entrepreneurial goals while interviewing for a corporate job.
Alan:
The name is proof positive that my powers of sarcasm are weak :-)
Actually, the subject did not come up in a single interview, I have compressed the events of several interviews and phone calls a little.
What actually happened was, it got as far as a tentative offer and we were negotiating a little over the phone. I should probably expand the essay to make it clear I wasn't asking this in the first meeting.
On the other hand, there is honestly no good time to bring this up with certain employers.
The name is proof positive that my powers of sarcasm are weak :-)
Actually, the subject did not come up in a single interview, I have compressed the events of several interviews and phone calls a little.
What actually happened was, it got as far as a tentative offer and we were negotiating a little over the phone. I should probably expand the essay to make it clear I wasn't asking this in the first meeting.
On the other hand, there is honestly no good time to bring this up with certain employers.
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