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Ask HN: What to do as founder if your dev is threatening to make project public?

6 points by imsurajkadam ↗ HN
My developer is not working as we agreed on the contract and now he is threatning me that if I offend him then he will make my project public before I launch the full version. I have made the contract with all the rules and NDA, but if I get into those things now, it will cost a lot of time for me which is not affordable at the position I am right now.

14 comments

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ilaksh
Is he "your dev"? How did you come to own him?

If your entire business is dependant on this person then they are, in a way, your defacto co-founder. But you give them no ownership.

The developer probably would say that you aren't holding up your end of the agreement.

Regardless, you can either come to terms with this person, which probably involves giving them some small degree of ownership or a more fair rate, or try to sue them.

By the way, I assume that you are massively underpaying them in addition to not giving them any ownership. If you were to add up all of the time the system has been in development, how many days is it? Then times 3 hours per day? And divide by the total compensation.

Have you been paying them at least minimum wage?

[dead] throeaaysn
[dead]
ilaksh
That's ludicrous. I'm not advocating for anything except fairness. I didn't say the other guy should be doing what he is doing or was really justified. But regardless, he is doing it, and this person can either find a way to change his mind or as I said, try to sue him after he does it.
whatppldontsay
You're the boss. You made mistakes. Stop. Take his perspective as far you can.

Do what must be done. If necessary, go public yourself and see whose attention your project gets. Adapt/pivot accordingly.

If he already threatened you, he's about to do it or will do it at some point in the near future, when you lost/invested even more.

Don't waste money you don't have and more importantly, don't waste time and attention.

You fucked up. It's your mistake. Own it, drink it off, adapt.

ssss11
Sorry to hear your dilemma. First thing I’d do is consult a tech lawyer.
eureka-belief
It might help if you clarified what he meant when he said if you “offend” him. Could you just offer to him that you just pay him any outstanding salary and then cut ties? That seems like always a fair option unless you have some contractual obligation to him. It would suck to find another developer, but that’s always a risk when hiring.

Or is there something else that you’re not mentioning that he’s getting upset at?

joshxyz
just fire him already. the code is useless anyways if they cant execute well on it.

lawyering up can help but it gets complicated and time consuming if you are in different places.

brudgers
Maybe it is time to learn from the experience and start again.

The lessons:

1. Contracts are only as good as your ability to pay lawyers to enforce them.

2. Relationships are how things get done, not contracts.

3. If you are pointing at the contract, the relationship is broken.

4. Offending people is rarely a way to get what you want.

Good luck.

farseer
Has he signed any contract you made? Have you fulfilled your end of the deal in that said contract? Sue him if the answer is yes to both questions

Otherwise maybe you are the problem here?

nektro
threaten back to sue