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The only way you are getting paid is releasing the MVP asap. Make a new agreement with the COO with some sort of acceptable terms. Attorneys will just take your money $5k ( you likely do not have ) and give you false promises. Your chances of getting anything without the MVP being released is 0. You might even offer to host it yourself.

[throwawayz]

"The only way you are getting paid is releasing the MVP asap" -- this is impossible for us to do since we would need to spend a ton of time understanding their existing backend ( 4yrs old ) and at this point this MVP is worthless to them if they are truly imploding financially.

[karmajunkie]

Yeah, that's not good advice. You're throwing good money after bad there.

The lesson learned here: work off a retainer system the way most lawyers do. I get two weeks of billable hours from clients up front; then I send them an invoice every week, giving them a week to pay it, at which point they've burned through the remainder of their retainer unless they keep current on invoices. That way I'm never out if they up and decide they're running out of money.

Your best option now is to talk to an attorney experienced in debt collection from insolvent entities. If they're going belly up, then the assets are going to be liquidated, and you want to be as close to the front of the line as you can get. Depending on the state, debts may have to be paid before employees are (though the pro-labor side of me thinks that's kind of shitty.) Be frank with them, but professional, and let them know while you understand the difficulties they're in, you have to take steps to protect your own business, so while you hope that you can work it out eventually you need to involve your attorney at this point to ensure your place in line.

Chances are, you still won't see anything, which sucks, I've been there. I hope it works out for you.