[fred_durst]

This story sounds a bit one sided. Sounds to me like the other cofounder chose a fantastic lawyer. I find it really, really hard to believe he did nothing at all for 2 months. Its possible its true, but considering how aggressive and forward your listed actions(bring in another dev weeks into the project to look over his shoulder, pushing him out completely after 2 months, using your own money to buy him out) I have a hunch this isn't the whole story. I wonder if its a bit more about the two of you having a disagreement about the direction of the tech/company etc and he became a bit unmotivated because you started bossing him around and treating him like an employee and not a partner. For example you ended trying to fire him like an employee and now your publicly throwing your friend the lawyer under the bus.

[kevinbracken]

The ousted cofounder actually had no lawyer, he hates them.

As for our friend lawyer, he's a great attorney, but just for big corporate law.

[fred_durst]

Hmmm, so the "cofounder" didn't even have a lawyer. Ok, here's a possible guess on what might have happened.

You wanted to build an app for the idea you have. For gyms. From your personality and app, I'm guessing you like working out. You needed someone with some technical ability. Maybe you recruited this cofounder or he was a friend of a friend? Maybe a close friend? You made a deal with him because you couldn't pay him, but "generous equity" in the company. He stayed at your house etc, because he wasn't getting paid in real money while you guys were building the app. I have a hunch you had a lot more business experience and money in the bank. Then it sounds like its likely a combination of him being a bit over his head and realizing that he wasn't a real cofounder and was just an employee. Then you decide to fire him and he says, "Hey wait, I've been working for free all this time!". Then the legal bit ensues and you have to "pay him" for his portion of the company that he likely said was for his work.

Did I get close?

And your comments about the lawyer are definitely not the kind of thing I would do publicly about a friend and definitely gives me insight into your character in general. You might want to reconsider keeping this public.

[kevinbracken]

This was our previous company, two years ago. It was an event product.

We each had equal equity and equal pay. He was a fine designer and developer and was able to rapidly prototype for us just fine before.

Our vision for the product was very similar, and this was our focus 100% of the time. We quit our jobs, moved out to California together, and were living in a house working on this product day in and day out.

But after our living situation improved (nice food, house, car) his motivation to work disappeared completely.

I'd say he got a pretty nice payout considering that company didn't end up going anywhere.