[wilfra]

This is the correct answer. Talk to a lawyer. Consider having that lawyer negotiate on your behalf.

Lawyer != lawsuit and it doesn't have to make things confrontational. It is just smart. If they are smart they talked to a lawyer about how to let you go.

[wpietri]

Agreed. The Bay Area lawyer I've used for a dozen years is Adam Slote: http://slotelaw.com/

I strongly recommend that you talk to someone like him. An experienced lawyer will be able to put this in perspective for you in short order: industry norms and expectations, legal options, negotiating tactics.

This could go all sorts of ways. On one memorable occasion, this lawyer wrote a short letter and got me $20k in wages owed. On others he's advised me to just walk away.

I'd also suggest you consider cash instead of equity, especially payment for expenses. You may prefer a longer runway (or a month recovering on a Mexican beach) instead of more lottery tickets.

[NameNickHN]

Can't agree more. There were a couple of "Ask HNs" recently that were job related and made me wonder why people aren't immediately contacting a lawyer.