Ask HN: How do I tell friends that I no longer want to develop “our” startup

[FrozenTuna]

I was promised 25% stake in a webapp a few months ago by some family friends. The whole team consists of 2 project owners and myself. After a few months of free development in my spare time, I'm about 30% done with this app. My feelings on the matter/investment/my time have since soured. I still like these people, but how do I explain to them that I hate working on this project for free?

[eksemplar]

By being assertive.

Which is easier said than done, especially if you haven’t had any training in being assertive and have feelings invested.

You need to figure out what terms are non-negotiable for you. If you don’t want to work on the project anymore, then you keep telling them that you don’t want to work on the project anymore in a calm and polite manner while you acknowledge their frustrations but keep your ground.

If you can be pursauded to work on the project for money, then you negotiate this opening, and simply keep saying that you can’t work on the project for free, but that you’re willing to keep working in it, if you get paid.

You need to keep things relevant though. The fact that ideas are cheap, isn’t relevant to you not wanting to work on the project, and I promise you that you’ll fuel the fire if you bring that up.

[FrozenTuna]

Thank you so much for the advice! It definitely changes how I'm approaching it. I would definitely be willing to own less of a stake if it meant working full time at less than my current salary.

[FrozenTuna]

Also, they obviously think their idea is worth a fortune. How do I explain the idea is worth about 10% and the other 90% is coming from all the hours I've put into it?

[sharemywin]

How is it going to get marketed/sold? What I've found is that's where the 50% or more of the value comes. Once you have some paying customers and feedback to improve and get word of mouth.

[FrozenTuna]

They know a guy in the industry and offered 10% stake to him. Its an app targeting physicians, so pretty niche.

[sharemywin]

How many physicians have said they will use or even better pay for this product? until you've got at least some yeses I would go back to stage three.

http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2012/02/stages-process-steps...

[briandear]

"Hey, I don't want to work on this anymore. I can't afford it."

[FrozenTuna]

I have a full time job doing web development. I can afford it in terms of money, but its starting to burn me out. I didn't even think that was possible until this past weekend. The only real issue is that they're close friends. No one has invested a penny financially and the only time investment is a few weekly meetings.

[konradb]

How would they react if you say to them that it is starting to burn you out?