3 ms·

Thanks for the comment! I've already decided it isn't worth it. I have no plans to lawyer up in this situation.

karmajunkie 9y ago
You really ought to reconsider this. Even if you don't take equity as the payoff to the time you invested in working on this project, if you were really unpaid during all those years working on it, you likely have a strong case under employment law if nothing else, if you can document time you spent on it. It sounds like your father really took advantage of your naivete here. I can't imagine doing something like this with my son. Even if I didn't think his involvement warranted equity, paying him for working on it would be done without question. There's a lot to learn here, obviously. One thing I'm picking up on reading your pastebin is that this is a company that grew to at least several employees, and operated without your involvement for at least a few years. There's a lot that goes into building a company, and just being around for the start of it doesn't entitle someone to half the company—this is why vesting schedules are a thing. So its worth looking hard at your expectations and being brutally honest with yourself about the role you played in the formation of the company. At the end of that, though, if you're able to honestly conclude that your role was absolutely integral to the formation of the company, you should stand firm in demanding to be compensated for that.
- karmajunkie 9y ago
  Actually, now that I think about it, you may have a rock solid case in terms of copyright. Absent an employment or contractual agreement that makes your code a work-for-hire, you own the copyright to any code you write. If you don't have any agreements in place with the company your father started with you, then you still own the copyright to the code you presumably wrote during the early days. Even if they had developers who later built upon that, their copyright is derivative. They can't do anything with it without your agreement, including sell the company, the software, or really even deploy it if push comes to shove. I'm assuming you can prove your own copyright in the form of source control. I've been through exactly this situation with a client, and if I hadn't had that card to play I'd have gotten royally screwed dealing with them. I don't know if I ever really got as much out as I put in, but it made me almost-whole. (and you can reach out to me if you want the full story there, I'm not going to put it on HN.)
  - whiskers08xmt 9y ago
    IANAL but my father is. This is exactly the advice he gave me in a similar situation. OP is the legal owner of the IP, if he was never given compensation, or signed away the rights. If I was in the OP's place, I would tell his family about this, but also that he doesn't intend to lawyer up. It sounds like the business is reliant on OP, OPs code, and OP's talents, so it would be in the best interest for every party involved to give OP a fair share of the company.
    - karmajunkie 9y ago
      The problem he's going to run into now is that giving him his fair share is going to have dramatically greater tax implications if given in the form of equity. Options are a possibility, and if the company is an LLC there are interesting ways to play with a share of the profit account instead of the capital account. Any way you cut it though, it sounds like OP is owed some substantial proceeds. I hope we hear how this one gets resolved!
phaus 9y ago
I know it hurts to hear it. You may have decided you'd rather have a relationship with your family than equity, but what kind of family are they if they would effectively steal from their own kid?

You really ought to reconsider this. Even if you don't take equity as the payoff to the time you invested in working on this project, if you were really unpaid during all those years working on it, you likely have a strong case under employment law if nothing else, if you can document time you spent on it. It sounds like your father really took advantage of your naivete here. I can't imagine doing something like this with my son. Even if I didn't think his involvement warranted equity, paying him for working on it would be done without question. There's a lot to learn here, obviously. One thing I'm picking up on reading your pastebin is that this is a company that grew to at least several employees, and operated without your involvement for at least a few years. There's a lot that goes into building a company, and just being around for the start of it doesn't entitle someone to half the company—this is why vesting schedules are a thing. So its worth looking hard at your expectations and being brutally honest with yourself about the role you played in the formation of the company. At the end of that, though, if you're able to honestly conclude that your role was absolutely integral to the formation of the company, you should stand firm in demanding to be compensated for that.

karmajunkie 9y ago
Actually, now that I think about it, you may have a rock solid case in terms of copyright. Absent an employment or contractual agreement that makes your code a work-for-hire, you own the copyright to any code you write. If you don't have any agreements in place with the company your father started with you, then you still own the copyright to the code you presumably wrote during the early days. Even if they had developers who later built upon that, their copyright is derivative. They can't do anything with it without your agreement, including sell the company, the software, or really even deploy it if push comes to shove. I'm assuming you can prove your own copyright in the form of source control. I've been through exactly this situation with a client, and if I hadn't had that card to play I'd have gotten royally screwed dealing with them. I don't know if I ever really got as much out as I put in, but it made me almost-whole. (and you can reach out to me if you want the full story there, I'm not going to put it on HN.)
- whiskers08xmt 9y ago
  IANAL but my father is. This is exactly the advice he gave me in a similar situation. OP is the legal owner of the IP, if he was never given compensation, or signed away the rights. If I was in the OP's place, I would tell his family about this, but also that he doesn't intend to lawyer up. It sounds like the business is reliant on OP, OPs code, and OP's talents, so it would be in the best interest for every party involved to give OP a fair share of the company.
  - karmajunkie 9y ago
    The problem he's going to run into now is that giving him his fair share is going to have dramatically greater tax implications if given in the form of equity. Options are a possibility, and if the company is an LLC there are interesting ways to play with a share of the profit account instead of the capital account. Any way you cut it though, it sounds like OP is owed some substantial proceeds. I hope we hear how this one gets resolved!

phaus 9y ago

I know it hurts to hear it. You may have decided you'd rather have a relationship with your family than equity, but what kind of family are they if they would effectively steal from their own kid?