11–20 of 28 posts
What does he need a lawyer for? You have no agreements, no money, no incorporation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. He's working for the VCs (that's what he calls them I think it's rather a beginning startup accelerator) because they promised to invest in us if he helps them. 2. Well, he's sincerely convinced of his skills. That's part of the problem.
From personal experience, all I can say is absolute trust and strong communication from your cofounder is absolute. You guys lack that and having to address it at all is already a red flag in my book. Given that you brought it up and things still haven't improved, its time to shut down or talk to an attorney to sign him off. Clearly this will not go well in the long run if things don't change.
Sorry to say it sounds like it's basically over. You can't fix things if you are cofounders that don't communicate or respect each other. Get out as quickly and painlessly as you can. What does he need a lawyer for? You have no agreements, no money, no incorporation.
Maybe it was just his rushed reaction. He probably thinks I owe him continuing cooperation after we've been this long in it together. Maybe he would attack if I took my code and used it. Who knows.
Sounds like you got a bad cofounder. I was listening to a VentureHacks talk about finding a cofounder, and they had two main points: 1. Is your team making progress? Because startups have fewer people and resources, your founding team needs to be effective producers. 2. Do you guys trust each other to have your back? An example they gave was how two cofounders were arguing over equity. Instead of arguing that the oth…
And yeah, I have difficulties with trust maybe in general but I believe I've done my part well enough in this case.
Sorry to say it sounds like it's basically over. You can't fix things if you are cofounders that don't communicate or respect each other. Get out as quickly and painlessly as you can. What does he need a lawyer for? You have no agreements, no money, no incorporation.
Either way get your house in order just in case. Make sure commit logs and history etc is up to date and backed up. Use Github or somewhere similar under YOUR name. Make sure your partner doesn't know the password.
Fighting this much with a business partner, in my experience, doesn't end well. My best friend and I opened a PC repair shop when we were 20. After 6 months we were at each other's throats. The business stagnated and ultimately failed. Luckily it failed before we had completely ruined our friendship.
What is the agreement on equity, etc? Is it concrete? What are the chances he will remove you from the company? What is it worth to you to go after him if he does that? Is he just leading you on so you keep doing work on a prototype or project he may just abandon - though expect ownership from still? What are your overall skills? Are you working on other projects to pay bills? Do you have other ideas you'd enjoy work…
The agreement on equity is 50/50. It's originally my idea and the stuff that's technically interesting in it is mostly my work. I very much doubt he could pull it off just by himself (technically). I'd have more technical chances of success but less business (which is why I chose to work with him). I made the mistake to work solely on this project and to rely on my savings. Only lately I've started to look around for…
2) If you can do the technical bits then do it by yourself. Then once you have it all finished you will be the one the VCs will be chasing.
3) I don't know anybody who does consulting/freelancing in the IT industry. You are either a permanent employee or a contractor. You want to get a contracting position where you are doing something low level e.g. fixing bugs or testing websites. That way you will earn tonnes of money and not be stressed from work. Anybody can get into contracting.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The agreement on equity is 50/50. It's originally my idea and the stuff that's technically interesting in it is mostly my work. I very much doubt he could pull it off just by himself (technically). I'd have more technical chances of success but less business (which is why I chose to work with him). I made the mistake to work solely on this project and to rely on my savings. Only lately I've started to look around for…
1) Is this agreement verbal or on paper ? 2) If you can do the technical bits then do it by yourself. Then once you have it all finished you will be the one the VCs will be chasing. 3) I don't know anybody who does consulting/freelancing in the IT industry. You are either a permanent employee or a contractor. You want to get a contracting position where you are doing something low level e.g. fixing bugs or testing we…
2) I will probably try. It's not a technological project though. It's much more Twitter-like rather than nuclear-fusion-like. So the business and execution side is really important. It involves non-trivial technology but it's no rocket science. A similar idea was very popular at a last year's TechCrunch disrupt and I see that the team is still pursuing it...
3) Interesting, that's new for me. But thinking about it actually I probably also know only people who are contracting.. In any case, I have some interesting potential offers that would allow me to learn stuff that I probably wouldn't be able to as a contractor, at least not easily.