I have been on both sides of these sorts of negotiations and I have to say most companies are not out to steal your technology or IP. Certainly it has happened, but in all reality it's not easy to steal technology or IP.
For example, let's take the TechForward V Best Buy mentioned by another commenter. TechForward had an interesting but not terribly novel idea. They shared the idea with Best Buy and Best Buy stole it and recreated it with their own mathematicians, actuaries, and programmers. Was what they did wrong? Yes. Was it stealing their code from their repository and then just deploying with the Best Buy logo on it? No, not at all. The point being that if your idea is not really novel and could easily be rebuilt by a team that is bigger, smarter, or well funded, well you are probably in trouble.
With that in mind, the more common situation is that they actually think you are very skilled and would make an interesting addition to their teams, environment, and company. If you are open to an aquihire or joint venture because as you say they "have the right resources to take [y]our product very big very fast", by all means state YOUR desire. Generally when I have asked to see a companies code during due diligence on a product that isn't even released yet, it can be thought of like an extended technical interview. I would be happy 9 times out of 10 to hear from the potential aquihire-ies "Hey, we're in this project $x amount, we'd like an exit like $y with a job at the end that gives us ABCD". It would safe them and the company a ton of time, effort, and money. But, more often than not the startup hides behind a lawyer without making THEIR demands clear (or worse, never really knowing what they want in the end), and then no one ends up very happy.
* None of this is to say you shouldn't have a lawyer, just make sure that your lawyer pushes you towards a clean outcome and not just the infinite legal loop.
For example, let's take the TechForward V Best Buy mentioned by another commenter. TechForward had an interesting but not terribly novel idea. They shared the idea with Best Buy and Best Buy stole it and recreated it with their own mathematicians, actuaries, and programmers. Was what they did wrong? Yes. Was it stealing their code from their repository and then just deploying with the Best Buy logo on it? No, not at all. The point being that if your idea is not really novel and could easily be rebuilt by a team that is bigger, smarter, or well funded, well you are probably in trouble.
With that in mind, the more common situation is that they actually think you are very skilled and would make an interesting addition to their teams, environment, and company. If you are open to an aquihire or joint venture because as you say they "have the right resources to take [y]our product very big very fast", by all means state YOUR desire. Generally when I have asked to see a companies code during due diligence on a product that isn't even released yet, it can be thought of like an extended technical interview. I would be happy 9 times out of 10 to hear from the potential aquihire-ies "Hey, we're in this project $x amount, we'd like an exit like $y with a job at the end that gives us ABCD". It would safe them and the company a ton of time, effort, and money. But, more often than not the startup hides behind a lawyer without making THEIR demands clear (or worse, never really knowing what they want in the end), and then no one ends up very happy.
* None of this is to say you shouldn't have a lawyer, just make sure that your lawyer pushes you towards a clean outcome and not just the infinite legal loop.