Comment by volaski | Hacker News Reader

Comment by volaski | Hacker News Reader

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I have a feeling this will be downvoted like hell but objectively speaking, if this Billy guy really wanted to, couldn't he just drop the software and let these "teammates" do whatever they want with it, and hire another developer and start from scratch? I'm saying this because I don't believe there's much value in some software built over a weekend which doesn't have any users yet. (Maybe it does but the users probably came and will come from this Billy guy's sales and marketing due to his expertise). Compare this with for example GroupMe, which is a pure consumer app, which blew up over a hackathon weekend. In this case it was the app (which was built by the team members) that brought users. If one of the founders wanted to go build another groupme clone after the event, he could, but it wouldn't get enough users anyway that way. I am not saying I am rooting for this Billy. He's an asshole and everyone knows that. I'm saying this Bobby guy is not so much better either. I couldn't help feel disgusted reading the entire passive aggressive thread, plus the fact that he posted this on Medium in an attempt to "bully" Billy.

Billy had 18 months, 18 months to work on the idea. Obviously he couldn't find designers/coders/PM for the cheap to build it so he went with the bait-and-switch route. I can almost imagine the conversations he had giggling with his partner as the 'fuxxing nerds' were pounding away on the keyboards.

Like, "oh my these stupid fuxxing nerds. They may know code but they don't know shxt about business and using people."

I prefer passive aggressive over passive passive (aka slave).

If the story is true, Billy deserves the 'bullying'. Did you read the shxt he tried to pull on the coders?

"I had the idea for 18 months and filed for LLC, so I own it." Really?

Yes, I think your comment deserves a downvote...

As opposed to "I showed up and worked 20 hours on your idea, so I own it." ?

I can't see either side being 'right' here.

Bobby never said he owned it. He didn't have hidden agendas going into the competition.

Billy says he owns it. Billy did have a hidden agenda.

Bobby at least owns a lot more than 0.04% of the company.

Had Billy hired the coders to do the work and say I own the company, I have no problem with that. But here, Billy tricks people to work on a project without fully disclosing his intention for virtually free, and than he claims he owns the company.

It's pretty clear who's wrong and who's right.

You're probably right, but remember that we are only hearing the story from Bobby's side.

Unless Bobby has fabricated the emails and slack conversations (and there are 8 other people in the world who would be able to refute them if they were fabricated), I think we've heard it, at least partially, from Billy's side, as well. What has been included is more than damning enough; the email detailing "ownership" is all I need to see, given the terms of Startup Weekend (which are easily verifiable by looking at the website).

Billy came into the weekend with the intention to commit fraud on Startup Weekend and on any developers he could sucker into working with him.

A side replete with evidence from emails and chats.

It's like people have forgotten that we've got a lot easily-recordable evidence these days.

The only problem is that Bobby doesn't provide and emails and slack conversations until after things started to go sideways.

It's like people have forgotten that anyone can cherry-pick evidence to put themselves in the best light.

A fool and his code are soon parted. Sad but true.

I said "I am not saying I am rooting for this Billy. He's an asshole and everyone knows that". Please read the entire comment before going on a rant and a downvote for something we agree on.

One of my college roommates was the tech for a student startup that had worked on getting off the ground for a while. He was like the 3rd or 4th guy to take over tech as previous people left. The founders weren't bad people, they just didn't understand the tech side of a tech startup.

Give people like that enough failure with engineers they try to onboard, mix in a little ethical fluidity, and after a while they'll see no distinction between dedicated teammates and expendable assets who will fold before putting in the "hustle" for "your" vision.

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