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r220099
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[Seeking Advice / Legal / Opinion]

Hello world, (TLDR at the bottom)
I'm the co-founder of a small startup and looking for advice from people of legal background or similar situations. (Any help making the reddit post more active will also help a lot: https://reddit.com/r/legaladvice/...)

Just as a backstory for better understanding:
a couple of years ago, me (early twenties, male) and another guy (late thirties, male) started an entrepreneurial journey, got in an accelerator program and some investment, and things always looked well.
We opened the company and started working / selling our services. Step by step we started recruiting, and getting some clients, and business is going well... ("well" as in, small revenues but not spending more than we earn).

The thing is that me and my co-founder's relationship has been degrading over time and I think it would be better for us and the company to split up and go our own way. He has the majority of the shares and I don't mind leaving it all behind for the sake of the company and mental health.

This is in US, if it helps, and we both have At-Will employment contracts.

My main question is, *if I do sign a termination contract*, from what I read, I'm obliged to remain reachable for a period of 12 months (plus all those IP related stuff, not sharing confidential info, etc).
[1] Is there anything I should be careful about and get some kind of protection or get some more information before resigning?

I'm afraid that if I leave the company it affects the business negatively, as we both work 16 / 20 hour shifts many times and my work would not be easily replaced by anyone in the current team. We are hiring more people right now, and some seniors, and I was thinking on staying one month dedicated only to training them... [2] Could this be specified in some contract that I am resigning from "today", but stay 30 days focusing on training new people, or anything similar?

I don't mind staying in touch and help whenever they could need, but I will not be available 24/7 and I will obviously need a job to pay living expenses, so I don't want to affect negatively my time in other jobs or personal life and be kind of protected against anything that he could do to make me stay continuously connected or compromised.

I'm interested in knowing any opinions and advice you guys may have, and feel free to ask some questions if you need extra details.
I just want the best for the startup but cannot hold much time in the current environment.

TLDR: Relationship between me and co-founder is getting worse, thinking on resignating but want to keep some sort of protection against anything that could make me keep compromised to the company.

Comments
  • 2
    I am interested in this as well as I have never been in the shoes of a cofounder. is mending the relationship just completely out of the question? you have reached a milestone my man, having a fully fledged business is crazy and admirable on its own, wouldn't want you to throw it out the window just like that.
  • 3
    You do know that legal advice from random strangers on the Internet is worth what you pay for it don't you?

    Just speak to a good lawyer in your area.
  • 0
    It's good to get some opinions, ideas, and, concerns from people on the internet, but seriously, get some real legal advice on this.
  • 0
    @AleCx04 He doesn't want to pay, keeps threatening to fire me, and never does, so I think it's not quite an easy way out, that would just be keep doing the same over the last months
  • 0
    @nibor Not really looking for legal advice per se on devrant, reddit could be more interesting for it, but not going to use internet as my legal base, you know what i mean? just want to know what options i have and what to look for... lawyers in US are expensive AF
  • 0
    @sebson Obviously will get some, but trying to get some more info before that
  • 2
    Quick update to you guys who commented, spoke with a guy I met in the accelerator who is a Senior Advisor.

    He says it's fine because contracts we made don't mention much, I will probably need to provide details about next job since it's silicon valley and they want to protect IP and make sure I don't work in same thing and potentially share knowledge from this company.

    Other than that, I can simply send an email / drop the papers and say "I'm out" because it's At-Will contracs. It's from my own will to even give any extra day to this company, but not forced to.
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