[seven]

It may sound too simple, but you should not hire anybody that you do not trust.

For sure, your faith in somebody is no guarantee that you won't get screwed, but in the end that is a risk that you can not avoid and that you have to take. (Or work alone.)

About your unique implementation strategy: You might be a genius, but I would guess that there are at least some people who would come up with the same or an even nicer solution for your problem, just by looking at your product once it is out. Please do not be offended, this is not intended and I might be wrong.

Thinking about one of my own projects right now.. I could imagine to stubb out some core elements from the code very easily. But perhaps this is not an option for you.

[Edit: About trusting somebody you don't know: Trust your guts. That is at least how I do it. Worked pretty well until now.]

[ptaoussanis]

Actually, I wish it were simpler still ;)

I guess it's just a difficult situation: especially with the geographical distance, a gut feeling is probably all I'll have to work with.

I'm curious though: is this not a common problem? Outside of the partner context, I don't often see discussions of trust relating to startups.

And about the value of the implementation: of course, I'm sure plenty could come up with the same or better solutions. The trick is that no one seems to have -yet- (publicly, at least) - which means that there may still be some ephemeral advantage to the first mover.