I was recently fired from my SWE job at Coinbase. When I joined, I fully disclosed a side project I'd been building for 5 years, an algorithmic trading platform called NexusTrade. It was on my resume, discussed in interviews, and disclosed in writing before my start date. HR cleared it.
Months later, Coinbase launched their own AI advisory product (Coinbase Advisor). Their compliance team then retroactively declared my solo project a "material competitor" and gave me 30 days to shut it down, sell it, or resign. When I asked for severance instead, since they were effectively forcing me out over something I disclosed on day zero, I was immediately suspended for "conduct concerns" and fired a week later.
On the technical side: NexusTrade is a MERN stack with a Rust backtesting engine. It has an AI agent (ReAct framework) that can build, backtest, and optimize trading strategies through natural language. Supports stocks, ETFs, crypto, and multi-leg options.
I'm mostly interested in hearing from anyone who's navigated a similar IP/compliance situation as a developer with a side project. What did you do? Happy to answer any questions.
That's all pretty normal, when something that wasn't a conflict becomes one, except usually you get the standard severance.
If anything, it's rare for employers to classify anything as a termination, because it's usually cheaper to pay severance than deal with compliance costs for termination.
tl;dr Austin (posting with his permission) is a CMU grad, who just got fired from Coinbase for having to choose between abandoning a side project he worked on for 5 years (And they knew about when hiring him) because they were afraid he'll "compete" with them. Not for performance, not for any other reason, just forced him to abandon things he worked on on his personal time, using his personal equipment, after agreeing to it when he was first hired. This is not ok.
They knew about it when hiring him, then they decided to build a competing product, so they fired him, as if his side project really risks them in any means... sounds fair... the big guys just want things so they take it and we should say thank you, right?
Doesn't matter, a contract was signed. Want that to change, get the laws changed such that these non-compete cannot be in the contract. Even so, it won't matter because the US is mostly "at will" employment and they can fire you for no reason.
Why didn't your friend work on the new product? There is more to this story than you are sharing.
Getting a viral post on HN has a higher power (and likelihood) than changing the laws ;) (we've seen this before...)
But yes, you are technically right.
For your last question, I don't know, I didn't ask, but he's responsive on social media / LinkedIn, feel free to ask. I'm just posting it because it seems when he posted it it got flagged as spam... don't kill the messenger :)
Hi HN, a friend submitted this.
Here's the short version:
I was recently fired from my SWE job at Coinbase. When I joined, I fully disclosed a side project I'd been building for 5 years, an algorithmic trading platform called NexusTrade. It was on my resume, discussed in interviews, and disclosed in writing before my start date. HR cleared it.
Months later, Coinbase launched their own AI advisory product (Coinbase Advisor). Their compliance team then retroactively declared my solo project a "material competitor" and gave me 30 days to shut it down, sell it, or resign. When I asked for severance instead, since they were effectively forcing me out over something I disclosed on day zero, I was immediately suspended for "conduct concerns" and fired a week later.
On the technical side: NexusTrade is a MERN stack with a Rust backtesting engine. It has an AI agent (ReAct framework) that can build, backtest, and optimize trading strategies through natural language. Supports stocks, ETFs, crypto, and multi-leg options.
I'm mostly interested in hearing from anyone who's navigated a similar IP/compliance situation as a developer with a side project. What did you do? Happy to answer any questions.
That's all pretty normal, when something that wasn't a conflict becomes one, except usually you get the standard severance.
If anything, it's rare for employers to classify anything as a termination, because it's usually cheaper to pay severance than deal with compliance costs for termination.
tl;dr Austin (posting with his permission) is a CMU grad, who just got fired from Coinbase for having to choose between abandoning a side project he worked on for 5 years (And they knew about when hiring him) because they were afraid he'll "compete" with them. Not for performance, not for any other reason, just forced him to abandon things he worked on on his personal time, using his personal equipment, after agreeing to it when he was first hired. This is not ok.
it is ok, he signed paperwork when they hired him.. its a conflict of intrest.
They knew about it when hiring him, then they decided to build a competing product, so they fired him, as if his side project really risks them in any means... sounds fair... the big guys just want things so they take it and we should say thank you, right?
Doesn't matter, a contract was signed. Want that to change, get the laws changed such that these non-compete cannot be in the contract. Even so, it won't matter because the US is mostly "at will" employment and they can fire you for no reason.
Why didn't your friend work on the new product? There is more to this story than you are sharing.
Getting a viral post on HN has a higher power (and likelihood) than changing the laws ;) (we've seen this before...)
But yes, you are technically right.
For your last question, I don't know, I didn't ask, but he's responsive on social media / LinkedIn, feel free to ask. I'm just posting it because it seems when he posted it it got flagged as spam... don't kill the messenger :)
Crypto related stories have not been "viral" on HN for a long time. There is strong sentiment against such posts.