4 ms·

I am a 25% partner of website X, which earns in the low six-figures. The 75% partner has a majority rules attitude, and all accounts and passwords, and when he

by techbio 16y ago

I am a 25% partner of website X, which earns in the low six-figures. The 75% partner has a majority rules attitude, and all accounts and passwords, and when he decided unilaterally to take a nice salary, and then reneg on a buyout agreement, I could see things turning wrong. Having built the site (technical cofounder, translated as: free coder) I have a backend to all of the user's email addresses (10,000 or so, having been collected since the time I started working on it). Soon to be ex-partner is kind of a volatile jerk, and I am by nature a little paranoid, so I sent the list to a couple of friends and family members, in case I needed someone to orchestrate a mailing. Kind of like being in a thriller with smaller stakes. Anyone else leave a time bomb or easter egg? TL;DR: Take care of your technical co-founders. Better yet, understand how to code for yourself.

staunch 16y ago
Even as a minority stakeholder you have rights. It's possible a lawyer could help you achieve a settlement of some kind. By doing something illegal (like stealing proprietary information) you're severely decreasing your chances things working out well.
- techbio 16y ago
  It is a gray area. A cost of inexperience too--I have learned a lot about partnership contracts and operating agreements. The other party choked off my profit share to the point where a lawyer is a heavy expense for me right now. Next time they will be settled from the outset :)
sp4rki 16y ago
Why oh why would you agree to become the technical cofounder for 25% of the company when the other cofounder takes 75%? Was there a bunch of infrastructure, technical or otherwise already in place so that your portion of the work was that negligible? In any case, yeah you still have right with your 25% contact a lawyer.
- techbio 16y ago
  Necessity, three years ago. A pitfall on the way to breaking free.
owkaye 16y ago
"Anyone else leave a time bomb or easter egg?" Years ago I had a client who promised me thousands of dollars to develop a website. At first he tried to convince me to work in exchange for a percentage of the company, but when I refused he said he would pay me cash. I built the site but never trusted him to pay me so I included a "delete script" that would erase all the code on every html page of the website when a set of three unique parameters were passed to a specific page of the site in a URL. When I was nearly finished with the site he suddenly called to tell me he was on a plane to meet investors and needed me to upload the site to his live server "immediately" so he could do a demo in a few hours. I uploaded it just as he asked, and then he seemed to become invisible or unavailable for more than a week. Hmmm ... After many unsuccessful attempts trying to get him to respond to my calls and emails I finally decided to trigger my delete code. He called within the hour to ask what I might have done to "his" website. I told him he does not own the website because it was still mine until he paid for it. He claimed that I had agreed to wprk in exchange for a percentage of the company, and I laughed. Eventually he asked if I had a copy of the website that I could send him if he paid me, and an hour after I said "yes" the full amount appeared in my bank account. I sent him new copies of the html files (without my delete script) and thankfully I never heard from that dishonest unethical opportunistic client ever again. Lesson learned: Never trust a programming client to do what he promises, even when it is in writing. From that point on I have always asked my clients to prepay for my programming labor. Most of them complain at first, but I give them a discount when they prepay, and that's usually enough to convince them to trust me to do what I say I will do -- instead of me trusting them to pay me later. When they learn that I'm honest and always send a refund when they overpay, they never complain about my payment system again ... but they really appreciate the price break I give them when they prepay.
davidandgoliath 16y ago
Doesn't sound like a good idea Curtis.

by techbio 16y ago

staunch 16y ago

Even as a minority stakeholder you have rights. It's possible a lawyer could help you achieve a settlement of some kind. By doing something illegal (like stealing proprietary information) you're severely decreasing your chances things working out well.

techbio 16y ago
It is a gray area. A cost of inexperience too--I have learned a lot about partnership contracts and operating agreements. The other party choked off my profit share to the point where a lawyer is a heavy expense for me right now. Next time they will be settled from the outset :)

sp4rki 16y ago

Why oh why would you agree to become the technical cofounder for 25% of the company when the other cofounder takes 75%? Was there a bunch of infrastructure, technical or otherwise already in place so that your portion of the work was that negligible? In any case, yeah you still have right with your 25% contact a lawyer.

techbio 16y ago
Necessity, three years ago. A pitfall on the way to breaking free.

owkaye 16y ago

"Anyone else leave a time bomb or easter egg?" Years ago I had a client who promised me thousands of dollars to develop a website. At first he tried to convince me to work in exchange for a percentage of the company, but when I refused he said he would pay me cash. I built the site but never trusted him to pay me so I included a "delete script" that would erase all the code on every html page of the website when a set of three unique parameters were passed to a specific page of the site in a URL. When I was nearly finished with the site he suddenly called to tell me he was on a plane to meet investors and needed me to upload the site to his live server "immediately" so he could do a demo in a few hours. I uploaded it just as he asked, and then he seemed to become invisible or unavailable for more than a week. Hmmm ... After many unsuccessful attempts trying to get him to respond to my calls and emails I finally decided to trigger my delete code. He called within the hour to ask what I might have done to "his" website. I told him he does not own the website because it was still mine until he paid for it. He claimed that I had agreed to wprk in exchange for a percentage of the company, and I laughed. Eventually he asked if I had a copy of the website that I could send him if he paid me, and an hour after I said "yes" the full amount appeared in my bank account. I sent him new copies of the html files (without my delete script) and thankfully I never heard from that dishonest unethical opportunistic client ever again. Lesson learned: Never trust a programming client to do what he promises, even when it is in writing. From that point on I have always asked my clients to prepay for my programming labor. Most of them complain at first, but I give them a discount when they prepay, and that's usually enough to convince them to trust me to do what I say I will do -- instead of me trusting them to pay me later. When they learn that I'm honest and always send a refund when they overpay, they never complain about my payment system again ... but they really appreciate the price break I give them when they prepay.

davidandgoliath 16y ago

Doesn't sound like a good idea Curtis.