Ask HN: Splitting profits between a programmer and a sysad/network engineer?

[ajushi]

Hi guys!

Let's say my friend and I got a nice freelance job going that pays a lot. I did the software dev and he does the sysad and networking duties. How do we split the profits?

To make it a bit more complicated, what if we outsourced some of the tasks. How do we know how much to split?

Any help/comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for helping us out!

[fusiongyro]

You're about to learn that you should absolutely never postpone figuring this out until after you go into business. There are almost certainly going to be hard feelings. If I were you, I'd split it 50/50 and call it even, unless that's really unfair to your friend somehow. Then spend tomorrow figuring out how you're going to split profits moving forward in a way that neither of you feels shafted--or you'll lose your friend or your business partner, or both.

[mithras]

I'd make a realistic list of hours worked, both take your hours * hourly rate out of the total, pay the outsourcing fees and divide the rest 50/50.

[codegeek]

Please discuss and agree on the specific terms before doing anything. You will thank yourself later on.