GlobalCFO

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND

Appellants Prasanna and Sushma Venkataramanappa1 are husband and wife. They live in Fremont and have never been to Texas.

1 To avoid confusion, we use the Venkataramanappas’ first names when

referring to them individually. Global Value Add, Inc. (which later became respondent GlobalCFO, LLC) and Prasanna entered into an “Employment, Confidentiality, Intellectual Property and Non-Compete Agreement” in May 2016. A section of the agreement covering the applicable law and dispute resolution provides, “The laws of the State of Texas, USA, shall govern this Agreement. Parties shall submit all disputes under this Agreement exclusively to the courts at Alameda County, Fremont. Provided that the Company may bring suit in any court of competent jurisdiction to restrain the Employee from committing a breach of this Agreement.” In December 2017, Sushma and someone named Sudhir Pai (as trustee of the Guruganesh 2017 Trust, a trust that is not a party to this appeal (hereafter “nonparty trust”)) executed an operating agreement for Venkataramanappa LLC, which later became PV Tax, LLC. Sushma (on behalf of Venkataramanappa LLC) in February 2018 entered…