Hello all,
I want to start hiring engineers to help me with the codebase that I've single-handedly worked on. I'm curious about how you guys protected your code when you did the same? In particular, I'm using interpreted language -- node.js -- so I don't have the luxury of distributing parts of the system as binary :(<p>Thanks for the advice!
This isn't a problem, but hiring people you don't trust is a problem. Part of that is setting expectations with a contract. Most of that is accepting that it's going to be a risk, no matter what you do (there's no DRM that will protect your code from your own engineers).<p>I recommend you don't worry too much about this in particular. Have some basic legal protection with a contract, that should prevent another company from forming. Someone running off with your code and dominating your company without a legal entity of their own... would be unexpected.<p>Also, your code is unlikely to be so particularly novel that the specific implementation is your secret sauce. (Not trying to insult you -- maybe I'm wrong -- but generally the idea of the source as a trade secret, unless we're talking Carmak's inverse sqrt, it's not that big a deal)