naivedeveloper

Thanks for your (and everyone else who has commented here) advise. I think the approach I am going to take is to see if he's willing to sign an agreement to dissolve our partnership, giving me 100% of the company. If he really has just grown tired of it, as I suspect, I think he might do this. If he's not willing I'm going to try some type of buyout, payable once revenues can pay for it. Then I'll offer a small stake as a last resort. If he's unwilling to accept that then I guess I'll just have to quit the company. I really don't want to do that, I've spent so much time on this :( . But I'm also not willing to keep working on it without my fair share of the company; I'd rather start from scratch again on a different idea.

Thanks, you and others have said similar things. I think how I should pursue this now is to:

1. Give him a little time to turn things around. Be perfectly clear about the expectations and keep asking him about his progress.

2. If he still doesn't seem motivated, try to convince him that it's better if we separate. Draw up a letter of separation and get him to sign it.

3. If he refuses to do that, try a buyout as dsr_ suggested.

4. Worst case, offer some small stake.

I'm really hopeful (1) happens but this gives me a plan to try and resolve this quickly if it doesn't. Grateful for everyone's advise here!

I know some of what he's not doing, because it's things we've been talking about for several months. But of course I don't know every single non-technical requirement. Isn't the point of having a partner to split up the work? If I did all the research into what legal requirements we have within our field, etc. then I'd be doing all of the work, instead of just most of it.

That's a great idea, thanks for it.

Thank you, glad to hear others have been here before. That sounds like exactly what I should do, I even like the way that you phrased it.

In your situation did you write up a partner termination agreement?

If you don't mind, what is the percentage that you gave him? Part of my really hates the idea of giving any stake, but if that's what it takes...

No, we're not generating revenue. This is actually why I want to resolve this issue now. If we launch with him having not really done much of anything in the last 6 months and we do have revenue he's going to be entitled to it.

Thanks for your reply. I haven't made up my mind. I'd much prefer to pursue this with someone else rather than on my own. But I can't make him be motivated. Aside from asking him what he's gotten done, what can I do? If anyone has suggestions here I'd be very grateful.

All of your other advise is excellent. I think this is exactly what I should do, if it comes to that.

Thanks for your reply. No, we do not have a company. We delayed incorporating to avoid expenses before the product was ready. Now that the product is close to being ready I'm fine with incorporating, but don't want to do so if my co-founder isn't invested.

> Then again, I don't know if you yourself are that committed either. A month and a half off from work to prepare a speech means you're not fully committed.

No, that was simply a mistake. I'm not going to take on any such side commitments for the foreseeable future. I recognized the mistake and course-corrected.

I don't know how much non-technical work remains. If I knew that, then that would mean that I'm in charge of both technical and non-technical work, with him acting as an employee and not a co-founder. That I can't count on him to "own" his area within the company is precisely the problem.