The Aftermath, Part 2: The Clause That Told Me Everything

Leaving my first company was one of the most stressful times of my life. It was a nine month fight to exit with dignity. And when it was all over, there was a lot of emotion to pack up and figure out. Yes, there was a blow up with lawyers at the end, and that is what I think you’d assume happened. But there was another part of it too.

That’s what I want to talk to you about today, because it’s the part you don’t often hear about. Honestly, harder to explain to anyone who hasn’t lived it. But I want to share what happens after the fight is over and you’re sitting alone with the paper you signed to end it.

For two years after I left the company I built and sold, I couldn’t talk about any of this. I had a non-disclosure agreement standing between me and sharing my own story. And buried in that same contract was a single clause, that after looking at it more closely, was written by people who definitely didn’t understand what they’d bought when they took over my company. Unfortunately, this clause quietly cost me two years of work in the one industry I knew better than almost anyone.

Today I’m sharing what that clause actually said, and why it was wrong. I’m telling you about the brands: personal care, maternity, gear companies in a gray area of their own, that came knocking and that I had to turn away. I’m also talking about the loophole I found, the strange TV carve-out that let me say things on camera I wasn’t allowed to say to the companies themselves.

And here’s the real irony: most of these companies weren’t my competitors at all. More than a few of them, I would have referred straight to my own company, back when I still had a company to refer them to.

That story is below. So is exactly what to check in your own contract before you ever sign one. I knew what my contract said, it was explained to me during the sale process, but I didn’t fully think about it’s implications on my future state when I was negotiating my sale. In the moment, you don’t think about the “what happens if things go wrong moments.” I didn’t think about it enough, and it cost me two years of work I was fully qualified to do.

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