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Reading comprehension 101: Identify the characters of a story and what happens to them: - Protagonist, narrator : Bobby, Dev. knows John and 2 other devs, the

by nico_h 11y ago

Reading comprehension 101: Identify the characters of a story and what happens to them: - Protagonist, narrator : Bobby, Dev. knows John and 2 other devs, they meet before the week end. Part of team 1. - Narrator's friend: John. Propose they draw up a contract with whoever they end up teaming with so that everybody that work on the week end project ends up with the 0.4% of the company if the project ends up being a company. - Antagonist: Billy, Business / Idea guy. Pitch the idea to the team, then decline to agree to the 0.4% agreement. Propose a "Handshake Deal", unspecified terms, without shaking hands. Starts an LLC based on the StartupWeekend efforts with "JP", a friend and other business guy, who was not present at the startup weekend. Together, Billy and JP own 100% of the LLC. Says devs might join the LLC, described as being hostile to sharing equity in the company, but might be an option. What happens in the story: At the beginning of the story, Bobby and John listen to Billy's pitch. They approach him and say they are interested in his idea.Billy propose they join with another team (Brad's, another 4 dev team). They do. Billy declines to agree to a 0.4% equity sharing. Offers the "Handshake agreement", terms unspecified, without shaking hands. All 9 work on the idea over the week end. Billy end up presenting the idea onstage with his picture on every slide. The project ends up winning the "startup weekend" presentation. ... etc ... --- Did you read the story?

logicallee 11y ago
you're right, I did read quickly. In your reading under the agreement they came to who would own the vast majority of the company? (i.e. all of it ex 0.4% * devs)? This is what the text says: >Billy brought along four other developer/designers he was already chatting with: Josh, Clay, Hayden, and another John. >Our John, Team Paladin John, then went on to introduce ourselves and his idea for us to take 0.4% after helping launch the startup this weekend. That way should anyone go forward with the work product and it become a big success, at least there’s some kickback if this thing goes nuclear unicorn. Also the way I read >John explained that he’d spoken with Startup Weekend organizers and was told that contracts aren’t allowed from the event, so he asked for a handshake deal. Billy said he was happy with a handshake deal, and quickly moved the conversation forward without any handshaking actually taking place. is that this is what everyone implicitly agreed to. I don't find it credible that "I'm happy with a handshake deal" and everyone moving forward isn't evidence of a mutual understanding of what would happen after. The actors acted as if everyone agreed that people would get 0.4% just for participating in the weekend, the terms that were brought to Billy, and that Billy was happy to agree to this. The fact that these 0.4% terms came from Paladin's camp rather than Billy makes it even more clear that the author is in the wrong. It sounds to me like you're saying 0.4% has nothing to do with this story whatsoever. It sounds to me like it was agreed on.
- nico_h 11y ago
  I understood that the 0.4% deal meant that at the end, they would together decide what happens with the project. Parties who decided to go forward and create a company would give out 0.4% to the members of the team that would not go forward in exchange for their week-end contribution. >John explained that he’d spoken with Startup Weekend organizers and was told that contracts aren’t allowed from the event, so he asked for a handshake deal. Billy said he was happy with a handshake deal, and quickly moved the conversation forward without any handshaking actually taking place. I did misunderstand that paragraph. I thought that as "contract were not allowed from the event" the "Handshake Deal" must have been something different, like they would be all equal partners for example. If the handshake deal means "we all agree to 0.4% equity if we do no further work" it means at least that, Billy should have mentioned the 0.4% in the message about the company being 50/50 with his friend. Also, the idea was from Billy but the winning Startup Weekend project was a joint effort, not something Billy hired Bobby, John, Brad, Jason (team paladin), Josh, Clay, Hayden, and another John to do for him. I think the feeling of betrayal from Bobby is that the company was founded, with a third party, assuming to use the assets he and his friends worked on, _without them being involved in the process in any way_. The way things should have worked out for him to be happy would have been is if after the end of the Startup week end they had mutually agreed on what to do going forward. Instead, Billy moved forward and then asked the devs if they wanted to join his company that he created.
nico_h 11y ago
Oops my bad, Billy didn't decline the 0.4% deal, I should read more carefully. >John explained that he’d spoken with Startup Weekend organizers and was told that contracts aren’t allowed from the event, so he asked for a handshake deal. Billy said he was happy with a handshake deal, and quickly moved the conversation forward without any handshaking actually taking place.

by nico_h 11y ago

logicallee 11y ago

you're right, I did read quickly. In your reading under the agreement they came to who would own the vast majority of the company? (i.e. all of it ex 0.4% * devs)? This is what the text says: >Billy brought along four other developer/designers he was already chatting with: Josh, Clay, Hayden, and another John. >Our John, Team Paladin John, then went on to introduce ourselves and his idea for us to take 0.4% after helping launch the startup this weekend. That way should anyone go forward with the work product and it become a big success, at least there’s some kickback if this thing goes nuclear unicorn. Also the way I read >John explained that he’d spoken with Startup Weekend organizers and was told that contracts aren’t allowed from the event, so he asked for a handshake deal. Billy said he was happy with a handshake deal, and quickly moved the conversation forward without any handshaking actually taking place. is that this is what everyone implicitly agreed to. I don't find it credible that "I'm happy with a handshake deal" and everyone moving forward isn't evidence of a mutual understanding of what would happen after. The actors acted as if everyone agreed that people would get 0.4% just for participating in the weekend, the terms that were brought to Billy, and that Billy was happy to agree to this. The fact that these 0.4% terms came from Paladin's camp rather than Billy makes it even more clear that the author is in the wrong. It sounds to me like you're saying 0.4% has nothing to do with this story whatsoever. It sounds to me like it was agreed on.

nico_h 11y ago
I understood that the 0.4% deal meant that at the end, they would together decide what happens with the project. Parties who decided to go forward and create a company would give out 0.4% to the members of the team that would not go forward in exchange for their week-end contribution. >John explained that he’d spoken with Startup Weekend organizers and was told that contracts aren’t allowed from the event, so he asked for a handshake deal. Billy said he was happy with a handshake deal, and quickly moved the conversation forward without any handshaking actually taking place. I did misunderstand that paragraph. I thought that as "contract were not allowed from the event" the "Handshake Deal" must have been something different, like they would be all equal partners for example. If the handshake deal means "we all agree to 0.4% equity if we do no further work" it means at least that, Billy should have mentioned the 0.4% in the message about the company being 50/50 with his friend. Also, the idea was from Billy but the winning Startup Weekend project was a joint effort, not something Billy hired Bobby, John, Brad, Jason (team paladin), Josh, Clay, Hayden, and another John to do for him. I think the feeling of betrayal from Bobby is that the company was founded, with a third party, assuming to use the assets he and his friends worked on, _without them being involved in the process in any way_. The way things should have worked out for him to be happy would have been is if after the end of the Startup week end they had mutually agreed on what to do going forward. Instead, Billy moved forward and then asked the devs if they wanted to join his company that he created.

nico_h 11y ago

Oops my bad, Billy didn't decline the 0.4% deal, I should read more carefully. >John explained that he’d spoken with Startup Weekend organizers and was told that contracts aren’t allowed from the event, so he asked for a handshake deal. Billy said he was happy with a handshake deal, and quickly moved the conversation forward without any handshaking actually taking place.