TBH, I doubt there would be a real fund out there that would care about strategies that have an output capacity of less then 5mm. Honestly, the worry about the fund taking your IP is far less important then worry that your strategy will stop working - most people I know try to keep up with R&D. There are some areas were alpha is more persistent, like HFT in FX, but in liquid products like stocks or futures strategies decay fairly quick. Feels like that ship has sailed for most of the places, nowdays high 30s is the best you get according to my HFT connections. Not going to argue there, I am not an HFT trader.
A considerable number of HF job ads are pure BS. Quite a few are posted to inform their current employees who might be getting "itchy feet".