mickeyM

Right, thanks!

Thank you, the thing with scheduling payments over some sounds good to me, I'll try to propose it to Jim

Thanks chasing, the problem may be what rolltiide mentioned - I'm not 100% sure whether Jim just can't establish a new company without me

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. From what others have suggested here, I guess it was your generosity that you've only retained 1% & got no cash. I understand that there have to be equity left for others, I just wanted to protect myself in case Jim sold the company a month after I left (without him doing any extra work that would "devalue" my contribution) when I suggested the initial 30% stake that would then go down sharply

Thank you. Yes, not having the vesting agreement is a mistake. A lawyer is currently too expensive for me, so I'll try to get it done myself. Even if they found some way to get me out without my consent/go around me, the fact that I've done most work about the app apart from programming means that Jim & whoever he hires would have a hard time understand & navigating it wihout my help & advice

Right, so that may be something they can use against me. Although since I've done the most work, I know all the ins and outs and not having me available for occasional consulting would be pretty bad for them

I wouldn't like to disclose my country & the company type since I don't want to get into trouble over the possible NDA that I may have to sign, but it's not a US C-Corp-like where you can issue shares and stuff like that. the ownership is derived from the initial investment (this is most of the times fictional, just to establish the ratio - in our case it's 60:40 as mentioned before)

:) No problem

I don't think he has the money to pay me the real value (maybe he has, but in that case he'd never agree to pay me that. even the sum like $2000 would be a problem) so I'd prefer to split it - I'll retain a small equity stake along with some money. That's the thing I've told Jim I'm flexible in & willing to accommodate, but Jim simply doesn't think so

Sure, thanks! :)

Right, thanks!

Thank you. I'm not sure that work is worth as much as you've suggested as dasil mentioned, but I understand your point - I was going with a lower value because I'm not sure whether Jim has the money/would be willing to pay me the real value

Thank you. I've hoped to resolve this peacefully and I plan to continue along that way. I'm pretty short on money right now, so getting couple thousands for a buyout or as a share of the sale of the company/source code is pretty significant for me and missing on it would be a real blow for all that work.

Yeah, there's no way I'm hiring a lawyer for this ($).

When we were starting the thing I was 19, kind of naive and inexperienced. Now that I'm 20 I've experienced a couple of other things along the road and it made me realize that I'm probably wasting my time here. Also, problems that seemed unlikely in the start arose so I believe this is the best decision right now

Interesting. I guess that's Jim's main problem - that a non-employee would own equity. Thanks!

Well, we both own the company (Jim 60% and I 40%) that operates the app, so there's no way Jim can get me out of the company.

The question remains whether he can simply take the app & create a new company since technically he paid for the app and the contract with programmers is only between Jim and programmers

Right, hiring a lawyer for me isn't realistic right now and as you've mentioned I could lose more money than make with such action.

I guess another lesson for me other than having a vesting schedule is having a responsible lawyer.

True, thank you

Right, thanks a lot. We are friends and I've told him that I'm flexible & willing to find a reasonable solution that would be fair to both of us, but the fact that he doesn't want to talk about it at all really puts me in the position you've described. The thing I'm not sure about though is the ownership of the app - if he said to me that he'll simply form another company, I guess I'll wait if they make something of it and then I'll come back asking for a fair share

Thanks - both 3-5% or paying me the market value for my work sounds good to me.

The contract to develop an app is between Jim and programmers, so I'm not really sure how this would play out.

Right, I'm happy that I'm moving on now. If nothing else, I will have a very valuable experience

I'll try, thanks a lot! :)

Yeah, I would have been in a much worse situation if we had the company structure you've mentioned :)

Thanks a lot for both the examples & a book tip. It was really a mistake that we didn't think about this earlier & I'll definitely have this put in place the next time I'm involved in a startup or other type of arrangement that could result in the problem I have now

There's none, that's the thing (lesson learned).

It's just that Jim owns 60% and I own 40%, that's it

That would feel fair to me too :)

Yeah, that's right, but in our country, there are no shares in our type of company, so the ownership is derived from the initial investment (this is most of the times fictional, in our case it's 60:40 as mentioned before), so even if Jim owns the majority stake, he can't do anything about mine

Well, the main reason for selling the startup/source code would be my departure so I don't think that would work

That's right, lesson learned :)

I would agree with such an equity stake & expiration, that sounds reasonable

I'm not sure how it would work in this case in the US, but we're from Europe - my 40% will stay 40% forever. I want to part our ways on a good terms though and don't want to leave the startup in a situation like this. On the other hand, the work I've done is pretty significant and I wouldn't like to see myself empty-handed if the company is sold in the near future

Hi, thanks a lot. The thing is that if I were to put a price on my work for on $10/hour, my compensation could reach $10.000, maybe even more and the co-founder would never pay me anything close to that. I actually don't see him paying me even $1000.

The thing is that I think it's pretty possible that he will sell the startup in the coming months - the startup itself may not be worth much right now, but since our programmers took far less than they should have, the source code has some value.