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Comment by Animats | Hacker News Reader

"It seems that the people who now own the company acknowledge that he was the cofounder but feel that "well he didn't do much, so he doesn't deserve his full shares. The law doesn't work like that."

Exactly. The founding documents are controlling, unless later modified by a contract signed by the parties.

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The founding documents explicitly list Kyle as the sole founder and shareholder of Cruise. If what you state is true then Jeremy's claim is entirely baseless.

This counter-complaint conveniently breezes past that fact, and moves directly on to allusions of a verbal contract, as memorialized in the YC app.

Founding documents aren't the only document through which someone can be given 50% shares. If you found a company on your own, and then give me 50%, and it is on paper with your signature and mine, I now own 50%.

It is more complex than than, someone may create multiple conflicting documents and the you need to resolve them by going to court to figure out how to resolve the conflicts.

Well, then the individual in question is liable for fraud, but that probably isn't the case here anyway.

Well, what exactly are the "founding documents" in this case?

...unless later modified by a contract ENTERED INTO by the parties...

Most types of contracts do not need to be signed.

But there are no founding documents.

Apparently Cruise was incorporated by Kyle in September, before Kyle met Jeremy.

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