Hi, i have been working hard on a personal project / website for the last year now. The development of the site is close to completion and i have 2 separate meetings scheduled within the next few weeks:
Meeting 1 = meeting with an Ajax Developer to complete a few small functions on the site
Meeting 2 = meeting with a potential investor
As you can imagine, the full scope of my project will be revealed at these meetings. Is there a document that i can put together that i can get the programmer and investor to sign which prohibits them from “stealing” my idea etc…
I am not even sure what terminology to use while searching on google. Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Have a look at Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA) and Non Compete Agreements. Forward it well in advance so they can read it properly and run it by their lawyer. It’s tricky though, because you are asking people to agree to not stealing an idea before they even know what the idea is. That can be quite limiting for them, especially if the idea isn’t as unique as you believe.
NDA’s are hard to enforce, yes. Most investors (at least most experienced ones) won’t sign them because they hear so many ideas that it’s not really feasible to promise not to disclose something when you hear similar ideas all the time. It’s VERY rare that an idea is so unique that it can be easily stolen and executed, so I’d focus on rapid execution and competitive edge rather than protecting the idea - ideas generally aren’t worth much.