Let's say you come up with a brilliant unicorn startup business idea and plot twist - you're an employee in IBD.
If you create your business plan and investor pres. using some work resources, does the bank have any legal claim to remuneration or to the business after you quit and hit it big?
If you create materials without company resources while still an employee, does the bank have any legal claim to remuneration or to the business after you quit and hit it big?
FINRA states you have to declare outside business activities - what's timing on this? Is it safe to do so immediately prior to incorporation? Do you do this as soon as you begin drawing up a business plan?
Thanks.
You are a moron if you do not understand the significance.
First piece of advice - read your employment contract. If it's not discussed there, read your employee handbook. This is the easiest place to go to find out if there could be a conflict of interest. If it's not in the handbook, speak to a lawyer about your particulars and get some clarity.
Second, I would be careful, not just about using "official" company resources, but about using anything that can be viewed as corporate linked. By this I mean not only the obvious things (such as using company resources while on the clock), but developing your idea using their work-issued property may be problematic as well. They may be able to argue that you used their property to derive personal value and are therefore entitled to compensation. I don't know if this would also include your personal phone if you use it for work too, but just keep that in mind.
Third, for the disclosure, talk to a securities attorney. They would know best. I could venture a guess and would think it would be when you actually file the formation documents, but this shit can get very particular. I mean, I heard a story of a guy who got fined by FINRA because he didn't disclose that he made $2,800 from an OBA. You know what that OBA was? Ump'ing for little league. So go figure.
I'd be very cautious to jump on that piece of advice. Let's be real here. If you use company resources to build your investor deck and they find out, you could be sued for theft, if not more. Say your business takes off and they find out that you used their resources for an investor deck, they could argue for not only theft but that the uncompensated use of their resources successfully helped you grow a new business of which they are entitled a piece of the profits from. I wouldn't say it's worth the risk at all if that's what you're thinking of doing.
What sort of resources are we talking about here?
No one's going to sue you for using PPT and the printer, but as pointed out above - still better to keep them separate.
You have no IP so there's nothing to sue for. Sure they could demand to see your idea to ensure it doesn't violate non-comp, but so what? They're going to race you to build out the business?
If you're afraid of getting out-competed, the biz was never going to work anyways...
Some good points above, but two others for you to consider:
Look up Netscape/Mosaic v University of Illinois. Employers have way more control over IP produced on their time than Universities, and Illinois lost...still, it’s not something I’d wager a billion dollar idea on.
Also, remove it from your head that your idea is worth a billion dollars. Entrepreneurship is incredibly hard. Way harder and more stressful than banking, and it’s controlled in many ways by factors outside of your control. I spent a decade in IB and started my own company about 7 years ago. I look back on my banking career as low stress and easy.