Re: @AC
If Trevor were to write about this stuff, two things would happen.
1. He'd get sued for breach of contract (the NDA is a contract).
Actually, some of the stuff that's out there might well never make the light of day. It's so very deeply hush hush that sometimes companies get bought up just to keep the tech from competitors. And most of it is damned good. I'd be far more worried about well paid character assassins basically ruining my life than any legal consequences. There are ways to perfectly legally ruin a man's life. I'd rather not attract that sort of attention.
2. He's get excluded from this sort of information in the future.
Which is why I comply. By being one of the few who comply, I get to have input in early stage products and help design go-to-market approaches such that there is at least a chance this technology will be made available to my people (the SMBs) at a price they can afford. I then usually have a shot at getting a launch exclusive review.
In fact, he's probably on shaky ground even admitting that he's subject to an NDA, if they're worded like any of the ones I've been subject to in the past.
This is really the weird part. Yes and no. I probably would get in deep cacapoopoo for letting on which companies I was talking to in the context of this conversation. But general innuendo that "I know people who know people who know things"? That actually works out rather well for the startups in question.
People who need the kind of tech we're discussing (or next gen storage tech, or next gen SDN tech, etc) e-mail me. I pass that info on to the startups and their folks do background checks and maybe reach out, get an early customer.
The world of stealth startups is weird.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
