[mickeyM]

Well, we both own the company (Jim 60% and I 40%) that operates the app, so there's no way Jim can get me out of the company.

The question remains whether he can simply take the app & create a new company since technically he paid for the app and the contract with programmers is only between Jim and programmers

[ptr]

When you enter into a partnership with someone, you usually have a non-compete and/or intellectual property clauses. If none of these exist it probably comes down to negotiation, but IANAL.

[gamblor956]

Yes, he could do that now quite easily since right now it sounds like the app isn't worth much under generally accepted valuation methodologies

[mickeyM]

Right, so that may be something they can use against me. Although since I've done the most work, I know all the ins and outs and not having me available for occasional consulting would be pretty bad for them

[gamblor956]

TBH, if the app doesn't currently have any traction, it's current value is essentially nil. If that's the case, knowing the ins and outs doesn't provide much value, especially if they have to rework the app as it would generally be cheaper to just start from scratch.

[mickeyM]

Thank you. They won't rework the app until they make some money off it first, so for the time being they would pretty much leave it as is. Since the freelance programmers (unknowingly) took very little money, the real value of the source code could potentially be a few tens of thousands. Even if it was just the $11.000, there is a value just in the source code

[Aeolun]

There’s only value to the source if someone wants to buy it, regardless of how much money was put in to make it.