The problem with NDAs, especially in South Africa, is that people generally use pro-forma ones they've downloaded off the internet.
I don't do that, I set them up using an attorney
The NDAs end up being so general and so wide-ranging so as to be completely unenforceable.
Not so in my case, we do this properly
Investors won't sign them because they hear thousands of pitches every month, often from people with the same ideas as other people. Investors can't and won't be bound to a legally binding contract like that. Imagine if you had to sign thousands of NDAs and try to keep track of which ones cover which ideas. You open yourself up to a lot of litigation. You can't keep track, and therefore investors don't sign NDAs.
I don't make investors sign NDAs.
Good luck trying to get a supplier to sign an NDA too.
In my line of business, happens a lot, and my suppliers actually insist on them.
Web designers, developers and other types of creative people often refuse to sign them as well because of legal ramifications.
I don't work with those kinds of people
Of course, a confidentially agreement that compels someone to not steal your client list, for example, is a different matter. But don't expect someone to sign an wide-ranging NDA just to listen to your idea. I promise you, your idea is not that great and there almost certainly are a lot of other people with the same idea.
How do you know, have you actually seen what I have done??? Without having seen it, don't knock it. And for your info, I have actually WON a SABS design award, some years back. So ja, not just some doofus on a forum ne... I even hold patents! I don't come here and get people to worship me hence they are not mentioned, except in a case like this where you think I am a fool.
For what it is worth, let me tell you what my problem has been. People having a lack of faith in me, which led me to sticking it out for years at crappy companies who abused me. The typical SA company that designs and makes stuff operates pretty much in the use-then-abuse business model. They will get what they want out of you, then make life such that you will want to leave.
In the leading phase, they will give you bonuses, increases, etc.. then when the product is out and making bucks, then its dump-time. After having just been abused again, I have called it a day, except this time, I have a nice and growing client base, I work 18 hours a day (most SA people are too lazy to manage this). This time I have the balls to tell my employer to get stuffed, and go it on my own, from home.
Part of the problem has been that companies have abused me so much, that they have left psychological scars. Telkom was enough to make me lazy for several years, then working for a-holes in the following years, didn't help me either. These days now that I have dealt with my issues, I am mature enough to handle this business.
Due to lack of decent electronic engineers i.e. engineers who KNOW WTF THEY ARE DOING, in SA, this is what happened: From around 2011, I started getting queries from people asking for help with stuff i.e. they had work done somewhere else, and the stuff left egg on their face kind of situation (i.e. p1ss-poor work from graduates who thought electronics = big bucks; people not passionate about it at all and who have gaps in knowledge)
This grew, and grew and grew, into a customer base, whom I am constantly doing development for, with a monthly turn-over of R70k+. I get new work around the 7th of each month... it pumps and pumps and pumps.
I have signed on new customers this month, which I project will push my turnover to R300k/month, and this is why I am leaving my day job ASAP.
Aside from customer work, I have ideas, which I have prototyped. I am not like every Tom, Dick, and Harry who has an idea and then tries to sell it. No, I build an actual DEMO, or prototype first, as that speaks volumes not only about my skills, but also leaves no doubt in anyone's mind.
Sign up with Google