Friday afternoon, let's have some fun. We've all gotten terrible "advice" from friends, family, or that guy at the coffee shop who's "basically a lawyer."
Mine: Early in my first startup, my uncle (a retired plumber) told me I didn't need to incorporate because "small businesses don't get sued."
Got sued 18 months later over a contract dispute. The LLC saved my house.
"Just put your terms of service in the footer and you're protected."
— Random Redditor, 2019
Browsewrap agreements are barely enforceable. You need clickwrap (make users actually check a box).
My co-founder's dad, an accountant: "You don't need a written agreement between founders. You're friends, you trust each other."
Two years later: messy breakup, no vesting schedule, he walked away with half the company for 3 months of work.
ALWAYS. GET. IT. IN. WRITING.
Oh god I have so many from clients who came to me AFTER following bad advice:
"My friend said I can use any image from Google if I'm not making money from it."
Wrong. Copyright exists regardless of whether you're profiting.
"I found this NDA template on Pinterest, it should be fine."
It was for a different country. Different legal system. Completely unenforceable.
A YC founder at a networking event:
"Don't worry about patents until you raise a Series A."
Turns out if you publicly disclose your invention (including launching), you start a 12-month clock in the US and lose patent rights immediately in most other countries.
We lost the ability to patent our core technology. Competitor filed on something similar a year later.
From a Fiverr "legal consultant":
"Just add 'for entertainment purposes only' to your contract and you can't be held liable for anything."
That's... that's not how any of this works.
From a dropshipping "guru" course I unfortunately paid $500 for:
"You don't need a privacy policy if you're using Shopify because Shopify handles all that."
Literally the opposite of true. Shopify's policy covers Shopify, not your store. Almost got hit with a CCPA violation.
This thread is gold.
Mine from when I was a baby lawyer - senior attorney at my first firm (real estate, not startups): "NDAs are just formalities. No one ever sues over confidentiality."
Had a case 6 months later where a company sued a former employee for $2.3M over NDA violations. They won.
Not advice I received but advice I've had to un-do for clients:
"My developer owns the code unless I specifically put in writing that I own it."
Also:
"I own the code because I paid for it."
The actual answer: depends on whether they're an employee (you likely own it via work-for-hire) or contractor (they likely own it unless you have written IP assignment). This one causes SO much confusion.
lol my favorite: "you can trademark your idea"
no. no you cannot.
This thread is exactly what I needed on a Friday night.
Moral of all of these: Don't take legal advice from people who aren't lawyers. And even then, make sure they specialize in what you're asking about. Your real estate attorney probably shouldn't be advising on your SaaS terms of service.
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