Hey all , i wanted to share my recent experience and get some advices. So i am an software engineer, currently working as a lead at an edtech startup. On the side , i was recently working with a founder on a saas for publishers , i had connected with her on YCombinator cofounder site . So we never had things on contract, but rather like it was discussed that we will work and figure out things for an exploratory period like 3 months , and then see how it pans out.
We ended up creating a MVP much recently. And I started gathering feedback for the same, me being the person who is working on product and tech side. So i outreached people on reddit and outreached publishers through google. And i ended up outreaching a publisher who herself had created a software around accounting for publishers.
So she mailed us to figure out collaboration since she was focusing more on core publishing and thought that our company could take better care of the product . So i shared that mail with my founder and i was happy at that time. I thought B2B partnership might be very beneficial. And i suggested her , maybe not collaboration but maybe we can have this person as advisor. To have a conversation to figure how can this pan out.
So she mentioned to wait before responding, and I went back to resolving a bug or something. An hour later, my access to github is gone, vercel is gone and i get an email that i am fired effective immediately. And i was just shocked and didn't know how to react to this. She just mentioned that she is firing me , and no call or anything. Apparently on her end she started thinking that i have been collaborating and sharing code to other companies or this publisher . And i tried to explain her that this is a misunderstanding and if she would have reached out that publisher. She would have understood the same. Naturally i am not ever working there.
I am very sad, for starters. And I thought that the core agreements could have been done later, however the important thing was validation of the product. And i worked on this as my own product , and i believed it the same as well. But the fact that i just got fired over an email without any conversation made me realised how little my founder would have thought possibly just a freelancer.
So i wanted to understand what things did i do wrong ? Should everything be on paper. Should i keep my holding company moving forward ??
And what should i do for the next thing or partnership , since i can't really do everything on my own.
I got fired from my own startup (side project ).
byu/Silatus-sahil inEntrepreneur
Posted by Silatus-sahil
9 Comments
That really sucks man. Sounds like a rough experience. You didn’t really do anything wrong, just a reminder that even early on it helps to put things in writing. Misunderstandings happen fast without it, but you’ll come out wiser next time.
I would consider keeping the source code in a VCS that my “partner” does not have access to until a formal agreement has been agreed upon.
You wrote software? Did you ever transfer the IP rights of it to the company?
Well the “company” / venture is uninvestable unless you two resolve this conflict, especially with regards to IP. You have the power to pretty much stop any future VC deal this company could ever get from closing. So it’s on them to do right by you. Seems like whoever the other person is they like to act emotionally and without much planning. A major red flag.
Nope , i didnt . I thought that there would be revenue sharing if we had revenue and we had agreement where everything would be allocated around 27th Nov
Sounds like a terrible experience. As the technical cofounder you should be the one who maintained access to the GitHub account.
Finding a cofounder on our level isn’t easy and this story is a reminder. You need to get lucky or be a good judge of human behavior.
Did she incorporate? If she was not incorporated and you haven’t received any compensation then you are likely the owner of the code. It’s obviously not someone you want to work with but the startup is truly dead unless you come to an agreement where you two can share the code or she can compensate you for it.
As far as what you did wrong. Well, someone can say that you should always get your agreements in place first but really, if you’re having this kind of conflict with them wouldn’t you have had a conflict for some reason or another at a later point and that would have killed business?
My first venture was with a friend of 10 years. So that’s a good basis to start a relationship.
You can do it on your own. Do not partner again. If you must partner, get it in writing.
Sorry, man. Ngl, this sounds like a TV show