Hacker News Reader

Comment by chasing | Hacker News Reader

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition.

Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

View on HN

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civil federal extortion case against both the acquirer and my cofounder.

But, as of this moment, despite my name being on the company's first and primary patent, having written all of its initial code, having envisioned the entire concept of the company myself, and even having named the company, I have seen exactly $0 from an acquisition I was supposed to receive 20% of. Even better, with $60 million in his pocket, my womanizing, alcoholic, conniving cofounder suddenly found Jesus and now fancies himself a televangelist of sorts. At last contact with him, he was "praying for me". Go figure.

So yeah, be careful when working with others. My cofounder would have been considered by anyone that looked at him to be beyond reproach. He was not.

Just a word of caution, if you're pursuing legal actions, you might consider not posting about any details publicly. Talk to your lawyer before you do anything...

I thought about that, but I've said nothing here that would hinder my case. They outright stole from me, and then when I called them on it, they responded with extortion. They aren't in a great legal position.

> I've said nothing here that would hinder my case

Any good lawyer will tell you the same piece of advice: "never say anything." It does absolutely zero positive good for your case and can only serve to hinder it later. It's very difficult sometimes to keep from providing what you consider to be valuable feedback for others, but you have your own interests to consider first.

I don't understand. Did you not have company equity in your name? As far as I understand, it would be impossible to acquire the company, its patents, and associated technology without proper paperwork?

We believe what happened is that he tore up my contract without telling me, established a new, clean corporate entity after pushing me out (though my contract was supposedly still valid, it was with the old entity), and simply transferred all intellectual property to the new entity. He kept the name the same but changed it from LLC to a corporation. The acquiring company claims never to have heard my name, other than seeing it on the company's primary patent. It's a big legal mess.

All of these things should have been notarized and filed in the state you formed the LLC in. There are records for all of this, and if the IP was in the name of the old LLC, which you were a Member of, he shouldn't have been able to do any of these actions unless he just forged your signature.

Seems odd to me. Find a lawyer, if you have a convincing case they might work pro bono at first if they can foresee a big payoff.

you should probably have made sure your name is on all the dozens of 20-page security contracts you signed when creating, incorporating, running, and selling the company.

Any name?

I probably shouldn't say here, but since I've posted the info before here years ago, I guess it doesn't really matter.

http://anakam.com (redirects to Equifax, who bought the company and tried to extort me, original company was Anakam LLC).

As much as I'm interested and curious to hear the details, I really wish you would delete all the comments you've made about this. I would hate it if they were able to convince a judge that your case is invalid based on something careless you said on the internet.

My bet is that he's already explored that avenue, and that the business relationship was not properly specified in writing and that it's the unsolvable "my word against your word" problem now.

Hoping that everyone get's that right the first time is of course illusional; may you all learn that lesson by being screwed out of a moderate 4 digit amount early in your careers!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com