Our Stance on NDAs

We don't sign NDAs unless there's a strong reason. Here's why:

  1. They’re too broad: The language of NDAs is often vague, extremely broad, and ambiguous. This puts both parties at a disadvantage and can lead to year long commitments that don’t make sense. 
  2. Litigation is often abused: Even if you don’t do anything wrong, it can open you up to legal action. Even if you’re “right”, you still have to pay for legal fees. It’s not a fair situation. 
  3. Companies change hands: Even if you sign an NDA with someone you trust, it can lead to issues if the company changes hands and there is new ownership without as strong of ethics. 
  4. The risk-reward doesn’t check out: Yes, there’s potential upside to an NDA, but oftentimes there is much more downside that can occur. That’s not something we’re interested in getting into.
  5. There’s often overlapping interests: NDAs often have language related to “non-compete” that was pulled from a boiler plate NDA found online. This vague, non-compete language puts both parties at risk and not one that we want to get involved in.
  6. It’s already included in our Terms: Keeping your information private is part of our Terms of Use that you agree to when becoming our client at AccountsBalance. It wouldn’t make sense for us to have two separate agreements on this topic. All of our clients follow the same Terms of Use and we don’t want separate arrangements with specific clients. We believe our Terms of Use is fair for both parties.

Conclusion: We highly respect anyone that wants to work with us and asks us to sign an NDA, but it’s not always in our best interest. For the reasons outlined above, we often say “no” to signing an NDA and try to find another way forward that won’t put either part at risk. 

Exceptions: If there is something specific that you want to keep confidential, I am happy to have that conversation. Just shoot me an email. We take confidentiality very seriously and regardless of if there is an NDA or not, we want to protect your information. That is the only way we do business.

 
Have questions? Reach out to me at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to chat about it further. 
 
P.S. We’re not the only ones who take this stance. Kasim Aslam is another that doesn’t believe in signing NDA’s.