It’s not entirely wrong. Way back in the Next Killer App bubble, I signed a lot of NDAs only to find out there wasn’t anything worth disclosing. I think I am actually violating one of my NDAs to recount the time a guy offered me stock options to build a website that looked like Google with ads. It had a search bar, would return Google search results, and was otherwise riddled with ads. He got the idea from a porn search engine. I put on a suit and tie to meet with the guy. Didn’t have any capital, nor did he own the domain he wanted to use, and I wasn’t a web developer. But he was willing to give me 3% if I built the site for him and helped him find advertisers, because he didn’t have those, either. He was an idea man, you know.
Anyway, that’s not the norm anymore, and NDAs are perfunctory when protecting actual company information.
Sounds like a guy I worked with once. He asked me to design a webpage for him. I have zero knowledge on any of that, but he insisted on hiring me as I was apparently one of the most tech-savvy people he knew. I sat in his office for several hours cleverly messing around with PowerPoint putting images and text together. Used the programme’s internal hyperlinks to switch from one page to another. Put presentation mode on so it was full screen so he couldn’t tell I was using PowerPoint.
He put £50 in my hand at the end of it. I never heard from him again. Honestly was 4 of the most awkward hours in my life. £12+ per hour back in 2010 wasn’t a horrendous deal, and I get a neat story to tell!
It’s not entirely wrong. Way back in the Next Killer App bubble, I signed a lot of NDAs only to find out there wasn’t anything worth disclosing. I think I am actually violating one of my NDAs to recount the time a guy offered me stock options to build a website that looked like Google with ads. It had a search bar, would return Google search results, and was otherwise riddled with ads. He got the idea from a porn search engine. I put on a suit and tie to meet with the guy. Didn’t have any capital, nor did he own the domain he wanted to use, and I wasn’t a web developer. But he was willing to give me 3% if I built the site for him and helped him find advertisers, because he didn’t have those, either. He was an idea man, you know.
Anyway, that’s not the norm anymore, and NDAs are perfunctory when protecting actual company information.
Sounds like a guy I worked with once. He asked me to design a webpage for him. I have zero knowledge on any of that, but he insisted on hiring me as I was apparently one of the most tech-savvy people he knew. I sat in his office for several hours cleverly messing around with PowerPoint putting images and text together. Used the programme’s internal hyperlinks to switch from one page to another. Put presentation mode on so it was full screen so he couldn’t tell I was using PowerPoint.
He put £50 in my hand at the end of it. I never heard from him again. Honestly was 4 of the most awkward hours in my life. £12+ per hour back in 2010 wasn’t a horrendous deal, and I get a neat story to tell!
edit: holy shit, I was telling my girlfriend about this and she informed me he actually got accused of fraud! Further digging on my part reveals they were actually cleared of the charges.