NDA? Not interested!
Small post today after a short interaction with a potential client.
If you want me to sign any paperwork up front before discussing the work or separately to any work contract, I'm not interested.
If we have a contract in place, that should already cover our separate interests, IP, and non-competition.
There's a variety of posts out there on why freelancers like myself don't want to sign NDAs, but here are two I find most relevant:
In short:
- I hear ideas all the time, and have plenty of my own. There's nothing new under the sun. Execution is scarce, even in the AI era. More bluntly: I don't recall a time having been asked to sign an NDA for an idea that was ever worth the effort of secrecy.
- I have zero incentive to add long term liability to myself or any other client of mine, especially up front.
- It signals distrust from the start. If you've been burned by freelancers before, I get it! However that doesn't change my stance.
- It might signal that you're an overly litigious client - in which case I definitely don't want the work.
- NDAs do have a place and time, but I prefer to structure my work life away from that sort of work in the first place.