[Axsuul]

1. Sign an agreement and designate one party the right to work on the idea while others aren't allowed to anymore.

2. Not at all, you shouldn't treat this as an experience working for an employer. You took the risk and the risk is not getting paid for what you're worth.

3. If the company ever gets big, you can very well bet that ghosts will come out of the shadows and turn your world into a living nightmare. Just look at every successful company that didn't end things on a clean note (Snapchat, Facebook).

My suggestion is to move on and accept your losses. Everyone is too emotionally invested and in the end, only one party should have the right to continue working on the idea to avoid any confrontations. Anyone who doesn't have the right on the idea anymore can be fairly compensated but agree to a non-compete. So what amount of compensation is fair you might say? The easiest way is to value the company at a certain amount and then multiply that by your equity percentage. And good luck! I've seen my fair share of co-founder disputes and problems. They're nasty to deal with but the benefit to experiencing it is learning to choose your co-founders more wisely in the future. Simply being friends who just happen to be in the right place at the right time doesn't cut it in the long run.

[throwawayuname]

The co founder who split is of the opinion that everyone can continue to work on the idea regardless. But I think that's mostly to avoid him having to pay for our efforts/pay us to leave. I had doubts about this, but now I am sure. It's simply not an option to have 2 companies working on the same thing. Thanks ! Totally agree about the friends thing. I am a little wiser now.