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This might be a long post. I need some serious advice.

For the past 6-7 months, My friend and I have been working with these two guys "Managers" on their startup idea. He managed the backend and I was managing the 2 frontend systems for them. The Managers are non-technical.

For the longest time, the Managers were very stubborn on how they wanted things to be implemented in my code or how they wanted something to look. Initially, this was not a bother as we thought that their experience bought some insight that we lacked, but after changing dozens of things back to how we originally made them, we started feeling unhappy. I specifically was more affected by this as most of their changes were related to the front end.

This caused a lot of rifts between us and sometimes led to heated conversations. I won't say that it's all on them. I do have an attitude issue. But then, it's the same with them.

Other than that, one of the Managers is very condescending. He used to talk badly, discredit my work and even say things like "Ohh, so you can't do it" for things that I said will take too much time to implement. This was seriously affecting my mental health.

Nevertheless, we completed the system, which was originally supposed to be just an MVP, over the course of these months and now have our sites up and running with almost 100-200 daily hits. But because it's an e-commerce site, that too with a very different model, the revenue has not started yet.

Yesterday, one of the Managers called me and in so many words told me that I should exit, because of my attitude, with my current equity which is just 3% which amounts to nothing as the company has no value right now. On top of that, I, an idiot, had not taken any remuneration for the first 4 months.

Although I too want to leave, now that I have seen their real face and also because of my mental health. I feel that the system I have made is worth more than 3% equity, way more than that. One of them is a multi-featured seller dashboard to manage products, finances, orders, and a ton of complex features like bulk uploads using excel, image cropping for products, and region selection. The other is a highly optimized dynamic site using Nuxt which is used as the store, with SEO good enough to often list it as one of the top results of various google searches. I'll drop the dev links in the comments if you are interested.

But I don't know how to go about it. I do have complete control over my code and have not signed any formal contract with them, but I feel bad about jeopardizing the company at this stage. Not to mention all that work will just go to waste as well.

Comments
  • 0
    https://dev.seller.tabeazy.com/
    https://dev.store.tabeazy.com/

    creds-
    seller@gmail.com
    buyer@gmail.com

    pass- haha1234
  • 0
    Ref: https://devrant.com/rants/4147070/...

    Reminds me of how frustrated I was at a point.
  • 4
    If you have no contract, you have literally no share.
    BUT you still have the ownership of the code, since your not employed and have no legal contract on paper. Currently its words against words, but you have the advantage in lefal terms.
  • 0
    @stop Exactly. But should I pull the plug on this?
  • 4
    You can always negotiate if you hold something they want. Make up a price you'd want for those frontend projects if you were freelancing.

    eg: 4 months 150hrs a month times 70USD hourly rate = 42.000USD

    It might look like a big number but so is the time invested.

    If they don't consider/discredit your request or even worse threaten: you can always kill the site and take your losses. But I would not roll over and just let them take my work for free.
  • 1
    @LOLjustCoding first try to renegotiate a contract that is good for you. A lawyer that works for you can help with this. For future things i propose that you and the others try to have a document that defines what it must do, what it can do and what it should'nt do. But much is depending on the copyright in your country.
  • 5
    If there is no contract and you have repo access I'd take down the repos and make sure non recoverable as long as your other technical friend is ok with it.

    They're trying to fuck you over. It's perfectly acceptable to me that you fuck them over right back.
  • 1
    @craig939393 then they go to an judge and he will lose.
  • 0
    @stop I was of the opinion that the law would be on my side in this case. Even if I take everything down
  • 5
    So to summarize. You didn't get paid, fell for the old-as-the-world equity bs, are being bullied into having done the work for free and do NOT EVEN HAVE A WRITTEN CONTACT (wtf).

    Yeah, you behaved in a really stupid manner, there is no way of sugarcoating it.

    As of what to do now: Go get legal advice. There is no written contract, not work was done and there was a verbal contract. You should make sure to check with a lawyer if they owe you salary and who is entitled to the code and website. If you don't and pull the plug, then you might face legal ramifications, even if no written contact exists.

    I say there is some chance to recover some money or to retain ownership of the code, BUT CHECK THAT WITH A LAWYER.
  • 1
    @LOLjustCoding its word against word, but an judge can be against you if you act in bad faith. if you do this ypu are burning bridges.
  • 2
    @stop how? He spent 8 months working in a partnership on something with a verbal contract, presumably everyone under a verbal contract.

    If they want to back out of that contract after OP and friend did 95% of the work considering an idea is the easy bit (commits as evidence), they should get fucked over. If there is no contract meaning they can get rid of him, then they don't own OPs work.
  • 4
    @LOLjustCoding With regard to whose side the law would be on - possibly, but not necessarily.

    Your two options are, 1) get out and stamp this as a learning experience or 2) get some actual legal advice.

    Just shutting things down might work, but might also blow up in your face.
  • 0
    @Maer I know that was pretty stupid. Also, those guys have some really deep pockets and I don't wish to go into any legal troubles with them. But at the same time, I can't get myself to just stamp it out as an experience. Although I will consult a lawyer, I really don't wish to bring the law into the picture.
  • 0
    @stop Yeah, I understand. That's another reason why I don't wish to just rush things and do something instinctively.
  • 1
    @LOLjustCoding I get that, but I didn't say "sue them". First you need a clear picture of your options.
  • 5
    Ok, delicate situation but not everything is lost. Good thing actually is that you dont have a contract so your code is basically your cognitive property.
    FIRST: Get a lawyer! For real, you have made mistakes already but its not all lost. Before you do something bad (like poisoning the conversation) get a lawyer. The money at stake is more than enough to hire one for an Initial help.

    2. After clarifying with your lawyer whats yours at whats his prepare secure all assets and prepare to pull the plug.

    3. Go into negotiation with the side. 3% for this terrible work is not enough. They have to pay you out for the above mentioned 40k or similar. Talk to your lawyer about it and include him in the negotiation, shows that you mean business.

    4. Especially since you mentioned it. Try not to let it become a heated conversation. They did you bad but any response to them taunting you could cost you. Just try to get as much money out of it as possible and move on or burn their project.
  • 0
  • 1
    I would be really cautious but readin other comments it seems you still have technical ownership of the code. So you should be able to use that in a negotiation. Still, I'd say to get a lawyer before you do anything in that regard as law can fuck you for a single misstep
  • 0
    Bro, start own company with same code and they can suck ass without contract and whole code that you will take with you.

    Edit: I would also suggest getting lawyer and they can suck ass two times.
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