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Comment by CyberFonic | Hacker News Reader

It's a sad situation. But if I were in your position, I would simply play hardball:

1. Leave immediately.

2. Don't work on the project alone. Just sit it out. Why? Because you could be accused of taking the IP, or something similar.

BTW 1: I doubt the incubator is being run by moral people if they are letting the other co-founders act like jerks.

BTW 2: How much time, effort, talent and money did the other co-founders contribute? Who came up with the idea?

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thanks for the reply. Fortunately there's no IP in place. One of my cofounder's came up with the idea but I have been the only one executing and making the product. Other co-founders have been doing "networking" and haven't had any success with it. All the codebase sits a Github organization which is administrated by me and a license text is attached to every single file saying that I own all rights to that code.

Have you signed any contracts with your cofounders?

So what is the problem? Sounds like it is your product, not theirs. And seems like you don't really need them. Why not just go and develop it by yourself as a different company and have 100% of the equity?

They will have nothing but the name of the company and will not be ale to compete with you. Any moral obligation you had to the guy who came up with the idea got thrown out of the window then he tried to screw you out of the company.

Edit:

If that is really what is going on here. Make sure that it's not just a misunderstanding.

There is IP. Your code. What country are you based in? It also sounds like you have complete control over the code base. Am I wrong?

It sounds like you should just quit the company and take the codebase with you. It might seem like it sucks because they got some money out of it but you 100% do not want to work with these guys.

They very likely have the failure bound mindset of "ideas are the most important thing, I'll just hire a guy off craigslist to write the code". My prediction is if you quit they'll think "so what" and try to hire some random engineer without understanding what they'd have to do then burn through the money and fade away (or just keep the money and do nothing).

I don't know what contracts you signed but make sure you check that first (and talk to a lawyer).

Also sounds like one of these scummy incubators that charge mentor fees and the like (basically tax evasion schemes). 4 founders seems like a lot if there's just one engineer.

Incubators don't want companies they invest in to implode, if you are doing all the coding id would be very confident that the incubator would be lothe for you to leave the team. I'm saying this because i think you should have a quiet word directly with someone you trust at the incubator and tell them the situation. If your lucky the incubator might help stand up on your behalf on this one, as its in their interest. They understand that the tech cofounder is usually very valuable.

Even still get your own legal advice and draw around you a group of people who haven't been involved who you can turn to for advice and support.

Seriously, just go talk to a lawyer to get some legal advice. Take all the correspondence and contracts with you as other people have suggested. Don't do anything rash or out of emotion.

Thanks for the extra info.

"Networking" might have really been codeword for partying, buying the drinks to get people to listen, who when pressed to buy come up with a lame excuse and scram. All the while you were writing the code.

By all means get legal advice. But it seems that option 2 might be viable. GOOD LUCK!

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