I got screwed out of my own company. I met these business guys from HBS and started a company with them. I am a programmer and they had me coding for 100 hours a week for 3 months. At the end of the 3 months, they raised money and screwed me over.

Are you in this position because of a lack of formal agreements at the start? What IP assignment agreements are in place?

Are they using your code? Either way if you have an email trail you might just be the lucky one. Lay low wait for them to succeed and sue them.

Anonymous says:

February 20, 2015 at 10:11 am

+1!

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Anonymous says:

February 20, 2015 at 1:40 pm

u may have the code base na?? Find some good guys and compete with them….

Reply
Anonymous says:

February 21, 2015 at 9:02 pm

Agree with the others before, lay out and wait until it’s a success (at least 1 year, better 2-5 years), then get a lawyer and get your compensation.

Reply

Did you not have a formal legal agreement?

You own the IP to all the code you wrote unless you signed those rights away. VCs get very unhappy when they find out they’ve been lied to. So you probably have some leverage here.

One option is to get legal advice. Just approach some lawfirms, see what they think. Shouldn’t cost you anything.

Another option is to cut your losses and move on. Lawsuits are soulcrushing.

Anonymous says:

February 21, 2015 at 4:31 pm

+10

Reply

I completely understand how you feel.

If you haven’t yet… just leave already. You own the IP if you didn’t sign it away.

Getting over the mistrust will be the hardest thing to do. Learn from this and appreciate it for all the discomforts. Don’t let this deter you from starting another company.

Let karma do its work.

You say, “I started a company with them” – are you a co-founder, a shareholder? have you signed anything?

Doesn’t cloning happen all the time ?

Clone your own creation —- Next problem ?

Unless it’s some kind of shotgun agreement ….. shouldn’t sign anything with one of those in, though as most people have said, you’re likely good on the IP front.

This seems like a contrived anti-MBA post. I’m skeptical.

Anonymous says:

February 25, 2015 at 11:26 am

+1

Reply

Any update on this from the actual poster?

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