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Side-Project IP Risk Scanner
Build a SaaS tool that scans offer letters and employment agreements for IP assignment, moonlighting, confidentiality, and conflict clauses that could endanger a founder's side startup. The product would generate a risk score, explain likely trouble areas, and draft a carve-out request before the user signs.
Why this matters
You finally get an offer, but your side startup is already public, maybe even running ads, and now you realize your new employment paperwork could quietly put your product at risk. You are not just worried about losing the job. You are worried that code, roadmap decisions, or future revenue could become disputed because you failed to disclose the project correctly or missed one broad IP clause. Generic contract templates do not help because your situation is messy: different role, different region, different startup stage. You need a fast way to see whether the contract is dangerous and how to document a safe carve-out before signing.
- · Built for Professionals in product, engineering, design, and marketing who are joining a company while still operating a side startup or monetized project..
- · Most likely monetization: SaaS subscription.
The Pain · Narrative
You finally get an offer, but your side startup is already public, maybe even running ads, and now you realize your new employment paperwork could quietly put your product at risk. You are not just worried about losing the job. You are worried that code, roadmap decisions, or future revenue could become disputed because you failed to disclose the project correctly or missed one broad IP clause. Generic contract templates do not help because your situation is messy: different role, different region, different startup stage. You need a fast way to see whether the contract is dangerous and how to document a safe carve-out before signing.
Score Breakdown
Market Signal
Go-to-Market
Technical professionals accepting startup or big-tech offers while actively maintaining a revenue-generating side product.
~50K-150K high-intent users globally each year
SEO long-tail
$49/month
25 paid contract scans from organic search within 30 days with at least 5 users exporting a carve-out memo
MVP Scope · 1–2 weeks
- Build document upload and text extraction for PDF and DOCX files
- Create a rules library for common IP, moonlighting, confidentiality, and assignment clauses
- Design a side-project intake form capturing role, hours, industry, and public visibility
- Generate a basic red-yellow-green risk score from clause matches
- Create a simple report page with flagged passages and plain-English explanations
- Add a carve-out request generator based on user inputs and flagged clauses
- Implement jurisdiction selection with lightweight rules for major states and countries
- Add downloadable summary PDF for users to share with HR or counsel
- Set up payment, onboarding emails, and event analytics
- Publish landing pages targeting searches around side project IP ownership and moonlighting clauses
Differentiation
Why This Might Fail
Self-rebuttal — the most important trust signal
- 1Users may not trust software on a high-stakes legal topic unless it is clearly backed by experts and disclaimers.
- 2The use case can be episodic, leading to weak retention unless the product expands into ongoing compliance or document storage.
- 3Jurisdiction complexity may create edge cases where broad automation feels unsafe or too generic.
Evidence Summary
How AI synthesized this insight — no verbatim quotes
Discussion participants repeatedly focused on contract ownership risk, with roughly a dozen references to IP assignment, carve-outs, written disclosure, and jurisdiction differences. The strongest recurring theme was that failing to document a side project before employment starts can create serious conflict later. Users also described current behavior as manual and uncertain, which supports demand for a contract-focused software workflow.
Action Plan
Validate this opportunity before writing code
Recommended Next Step
Build
Strong demand signals detected. Real pain, real willingness to pay — start building an MVP.
Landing Page Copy Kit
Ready-to-paste copy based on real Reddit community language — no editing required
Headline
Side-Project IP Risk Scanner
Sub-headline
Build a SaaS tool that scans offer letters and employment agreements for IP assignment, moonlighting, confidentiality, and conflict clauses that could endanger a founder's side startup. The product would generate a risk score, explain likely trouble areas, and draft a carve-out request before the user signs.
Who It's For
For Professionals in product, engineering, design, and marketing who are joining a company while still operating a side startup or monetized project.
Feature List
✓ Upload and parse offer letters and employment agreements ✓ Clause-level risk flags for IP assignment, moonlighting, and non-compete overlap ✓ Side-project carve-out generator with editable startup description ✓ Jurisdiction-aware guidance layer ✓ Pre-sign checklist and exportable disclosure memo
Where to Validate
Share your landing page in r/r/startups — that's exactly where these pain points were discovered.
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