1. Shortly after I started working on Tarsnap, I was introduced to a "serial entrepreneur" who expressed an interest in getting patents on Tarsnap's technology and licensing it out to other companies. I wasn't interested in doing this myself -- I wanted to provide the world's best secure backups, not sell patent licenses -- but I agreed that if he covered all the costs and paid me an up front fee plus a share of royalties then he could resell the "spinoff" IP.
Distracted me for about a year before he backed out. And then he asked me to pay for the money he had spent on lawyers (I laughed).
2. About five years after Tarsnap launched, I got a phone call from a YC company saying they were interested in "working together with me". The conversation went around in circles for half an hour before I figured out that was a euphemism for them being interested in acquiring Tarsnap.
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Two stories:
1. Shortly after I started working on Tarsnap, I was introduced to a "serial entrepreneur" who expressed an interest in getting patents on Tarsnap's technology and licensing it out to other companies. I wasn't interested in doing this myself -- I wanted to provide the world's best secure backups, not sell patent licenses -- but I agreed that if he covered all the costs and paid me an up front fee plus a share of royalties then he could resell the "spinoff" IP. Distracted me for about a year before he backed out. And then he asked me to pay for the money he had spent on lawyers (I laughed).
2. About five years after Tarsnap launched, I got a phone call from a YC company saying they were interested in "working together with me". The conversation went around in circles for half an hour before I figured out that was a euphemism for them being interested in acquiring Tarsnap.