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no contract, we talked about shareholder agreements but nothing put in writing. I have asked him to move temporarily, after months of "nagging him", he has agr
by tommartin12 16y ago
no contract, we talked about shareholder agreements but nothing put in writing.
I have asked him to move temporarily, after months of "nagging him", he has agreed to come for a month at a time.
But I feel like it's kinda self-defeating, I should not have to nag him to get him to do this.
- linuxdo0d 16y agoHopefully this has been a good learning experience for you. Always understand that when you build a company with someone that you are starting a _professional_ relationship with that person, and that your personal relationship is going to come second to your professional relationship. There are a ton of "gotchas" in this situation, remote country, target audience - but by far the biggest one is make sure you have a binding legal document that can help you out in situations like this. Make sure it's all in writing. Good luck, sorry about the situation. Hopefully it gets better.
- gyardley 16y agoBefore you do anything else, at all, take care of the paperwork. If you two part ways before everything's been formalized, you'll create a cloud of legal uncertainty over your start-up that'll make it very difficult to raise or have an exit. In your agreement, you both should have a long period of founder vesting. Then, should you part ways, you can give your co-founder his share of equity multiplied by whatever fraction of the four years he worked. Getting the paperwork right doesn't end with the shareholder agreements - you also need to make sure all the intellectual property is assigned to the company. Actually, what you really need to do is sit down with a lawyer that knows what they're doing.
- bootdaddy 16y agoExactly! Get with an attorney quick. Other option is to find funding and buy him out now. Sometimes investors like stepping in where there is a shakeup, they feel like a savior, get more equity and presumably, control. If you can do this, part of the deal will be the full release agreement along with ip assignment.
- tommartin12 16y agoAt this early stage of a startup before we have scaled, the leaving of a co-founder is likely a bad signal that would scare away any investors.
- rdouble 16y agoHow do you have a 70/30 split with no contract?
- tommartin12 16y agowe have a company and I own 70% of the shares, he owns 30%. So that is a contract if you will.