| My take here differs a bit from that of the rest of the thread. How about this OP - who are you to fire your coworker after he got a cosy relationship with a board? This is literally no better than firing an 'idea man' after they did nothing, except just bring an idea, set up a company around it, and code the first version. Who are you to do that? If you were good enough to found and run a company by yourself, including raising money, you would be doing that. Where are all the companies you founded and ran by yourself in the years and decades you didn't have your current cofounder? Even if he showed up to work three days: one day when he talked with you and then brought a huge investment from a board that you couldn't bring, then 18 months later to sign some Series A papers with you after discussing them by email, and the third day he to sign the IPO documents before quitting, you should still STFU and thank your lucky stars you're allowed to get 40% of an actual company that he actually orchestrated for/with you, in exchange for nothing more than working there, much as you might for whatever salary "S&M" or "product design" is worth. It's not your co-founder's job to work for you. Who do you think you are anyway? Go design a product or do sales at a big conglomerate if you want pay grades, or go found a company by yourself if you don't need the things you've already listed your cofounder as bringing, including a cozy relationship with a board. If you can found a company and raise money for it by yourself, go ahead and give yourself a 2.5x equity raise up to 100% by getting the fuck out and doing so. enjoy 100% of what you feel is 100%, since you feel your cofounder didn't add shit to the mix, in your extremely personally centered opinion. Everyone else here has it 100% wrong, IMO. |
So someone with 40% of the company thinks the other guy with equivalent ownership isn't worth his share? What if that guy thinks the same thing about you?
The other guy apparently has employee loyalty, funding, and administrative controls on his side...
I am not at all convinced that the OP deserves sympathy for wanting to screw his business partner, and publicly soliciting strangers' advice on how to go about doing it.
If I were the other guy, I'd put this HN comment thread in the hands of my attorney and take my own case to the board. Sounds like the jig is up for this partnership, take it out back and put it down.