HACKER Q&A
📣 hereforphone

Have you ever had someone try to steal your personal project?


Mine: I had a project that was closed-source and that had received some minor interest, even winning me a grant. I received comments from a potential user saying I was greedy and that I needed to open up the source. Shortly thereafter I was contacted by the CEO of a small company who supposedly wanted to hire me on a contract basis to do something similar to what I'd done with my closed-source project, for him.

During our meeting he asked me to screen share and walk him through my source. I told him I was unable to do that at the time due to technical issues. We talked about my project some more and he said he was going to contact me with details for the job. He expressed interest in having me consult for him. I never heard back.

I believe this man may have been attempting to steal my software from the "walk through" he asked for. I wonder if this is a common occurrence, or at least not an isolated incident. Has something similar ever happened to you?

  👤 jschveibinz Accepted Answer ✓
In my experience, it is best to never reveal the whole design, especially those parts which are “secret sauce”, but to craft your presentation in a way that the reviewer appreciates your work but does not recognize the things you aren’t showing. In short, yes, people will steal your ideas and hard work, and it is your responsibility to prevent that from happening and do so in a non-confrontational manner. I have experienced this behavior my entire engineering career—from customers, business teammates and even colleagues. My wife thinks I need to trust people more—but experience has taught me otherwise. Sorry to be a downer.