Why VCs don’t sign NDAs January 17, 2007
Posted by jeremyliew in Venture Capital, startups.trackback
Two good posts today on why VC’s don’t sign NDAs, one from Brad Feld at Ask the VC and the other from Rick Segal at The Post Money Value.
When I was VP of Strategic Planning at IAC and SVP of Corporate Development at AOL we didn’t like signing NDAs, but we did it reasonably frequently. In those cases though, we were looking at buying companies and we were getting pretty deep into the financial and operational details of a company very quickly.
Now that I’m on the Venture side, we hardly ever sign an NDA. As both Brad and Rick point out, there shouldn’t be a need to disclose confidential information at a first meeting to determine whether or not there is interest in moving forward.
Why we do not sign NDAs
We are often asked to sign NDAs (confidentiality agreements). We never do that and there are good reasons. Jeremy Liew at LightSpeed Blog, points to two excellent posts on why VCs do not sign NDAs. i strongly advise you to
This is really a dilemma for entrepreneurs, thats why many of them speak out till it gets into some shape, also if you dont speak business will never take off. So ultimately, who is stronger…
It is total baloney why VCs won’t sign NDAs. The real reason is simply CTA against potential lawsuits.
Entrepreneurs need to heed the advice of their counsel who admonish against disclosures which may jeopardize their IP down the line.
If VCs truly had the best interests of entrepreneurs they would sign NDAs simply if for nothing else to protect their interests to protect IP.