Ask HN: Cofounder conflict, startup dying or dead for a long time already?

Short version

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[Status]: Europe, pre-incorporation, two working on a project for more than a year, reached private beta in May but have no users. Started to look for investors. I am the tech guy, my cofounder is the sales guy (talks a lot, befriends almost anyone, never says no) with some tech knowledge (he thinks he's a coding rockstar but he's not).

[Problems]: he refuses to communicate, doesn't include me in talks with potential investors he gets via his contacts, I have almost no money anymore (he has significantly more and is much more worry-free). I mentioned splitting our codebase and parting our ways - he threatened to talk to lawyers about it (at first, he tried to be friendly then).

[Questions]: What should I do? Is it dead already? Would it be too unethical to e-mail the potential investors myself without a proper introduction? What about splitting the code? Could he use the lawyers somehow? (we have no written agreements whatsoever)

Details

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He pitched our project to investors, befriended them, got hired by them to help them with projects they invested into. I asked to be included in talks with potential investors but was ignored for the most part. He offered to let me help to some of the "VC's" portfolio companies as a side-job. He says that they will invest in us sometime in late September. He wants to raise $1m or more. I think that's insane.

We have a prototype because I pushed for it. I have to fight with him so that he doesn't implement yet another feature or doesn't reimplement something for which we could easily get an existing library.

I told him many times I am not satisfied with our execution and our mutual communication.

I guess it's better to end it now? I am afraid that after incorporation and possible funding there would be only more problems.

Codebase: we worked on quite clearly separated modules, I designed the overall architecture.

Thanks for reading and comments.

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 working on? I could ask more questions though the issue really is the lack of transparency. It doesn't sound like he's explaining anything to you. Him getting hired by VCs sounds a bit like conflict of interest, though it could be innocent, especially if he has said that he's still expecting to raise $X amount.

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.

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 project to pay the bills and I see fulltime employment as probably the only currently viable way to go (I finished my CS PhD (SemanticWeb) about a year ago and although I do have coding skills and industry experience, it's not enough, I feel I need more experience to do consulting and more networking, etc. to do freelancing).

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.