How to deal with employer non-compete agreements?
Hi! A few friends are I are building chipdev.io which is a platform for practicing hardware engineering interviews. We're all building this part time and work for big tech companies in California full time.
Are we legally required to disclose that we're working on chipdev.io to our employers? And can our employers legally force us to stop working on this based on their (very vague) non-compete contracts with us? I've read online that non-competes aren't enforceable in California, but I'm also not familiar with these legal things. We personally don't think we're building a direct competitor to any of our employers, but it'd be great to see how other indie hackers have dealt with this problem.
Lastly does anyone have recommendations for lawyers we can reach out to about how to deal with non-competes?
If the employer is a jerk, they can scare you and attempt to use their financial means to muscle you around regardless of what's in the non-compete. They don't have to be able to win to prevent them from taking you to court.
If it's not a competing product, just keep it's existence quiet and make sure you're handling all of your work responsibilities. If it comes time to quit, you may then want to consult a lawyer about what you should/shouldn't say about your reasons for quitting.
For me, my employer wasn't a jerk. I got my work responsibilities done, and everything worked out well.
With all that being said, don't use any employer owned resources to build your product.
Edit: I should add--I'm not a lawyer. Just my experience.