I love unfuddle. I find their UI to be so much cleaner than Trac, and the customer service is great. I usually get a response to any problems in under an hour.
Thanks Samantha. My thoughts right now is to structure our relationship now, while there really is nothing more than the product. Then, as the company forms around it, we'll deal with the more complex legal matters later.
Thanks for the perspective. I believe I've done it backwards, in that I know what skills I have and lack, and what this partner can bring to the table. To me, it's entirely worth splitting the company, as they'll do the lion's share of bringing it to market. What I am interested in is what needs to be put in writing to ensure that I am not giving away half the product, but actually splitting the work, capital required, etc. If I should go straight to a lawyer, then Ok :-)
I am going to assume that you want some kind of legal protection in terms of liability. In other words, you don't want to do this as a general partnership, but as a corporation or sort so that as you move forward, there is no way that anyone can go after your personal property. In that case, I would suggest forming a LLC, as I have discussed in another post.
Then, you just need to take a piece of paper and write down that going forward, you each own 50% of the LLC which encompasses all existing and future intellectual properties. By the way, I am really against giving away 50% since you have obviously put in a lot of effort in already but if that's what you want, you have the right to do so.
Then you price the LLC at some nominal value (say $500) and each of you write a check for $250 to buy 50% of the LLC. Then on the same piece of paper, you write down that the shares that each of you own (say 2,500 shares for $250) are subjected to a re-purchase agreement (which is the same as vesting but vesting applies only to options).
The idea is that you have the right to re-purchase the shares from your new partner at the original price at anytime. But part of the shares will be released from this re-purchase agreement either based on milestones or on time of service (four years, e.g.).
The reason that I don't suggest that you go to the lawyer right away is that you need to have this discussion with your new partner one-on-one and with plain English. And it is amazing how much you learn about the person going through this process. Going the lawyer will just put the two of you in an adverbial position from day one which is no way to build a team.
Once you work out everything in English, you can always bring in a lawyer (or not).
If you are still with me so far, then I can discuss the other issues. And there are lots.
Yes. I understand it may seem crazy, but here is my justification...
What I've built is a web app. That's all it is right now. But around it needs to be built a company, a marketing plan, PR, etc. To me, bringing someone experienced who will lead handling that on board is a necessity, because, otherwise, I'll I have is a heap of code and some pretty JPGs.
Even thought I don't listen to rap that much, Method Man works for me. I find rap like that, where it's just a constant flow of lyrics and rhymes, really gets me going.
Amazon's FPS wasn't meant to be the end-all online payment system. It really seems like it was developed because so many webmasters hated paypal. And while going through amazon is a lot better than having ugly ass paypal... the users still sees a third party, which can seem unprofessional.
In my personal experience, I applied for FPS. They sent me an email asking me some more questions, then said they would get back to me in two days. It's now been two weeks.
Does anyone know who does the credit card processing for Amazon FPS? I know that in the case of PayPal, it used to be a company called EPX and is now done by Wells Fargo, but can't seem to find anywhere who is processing for Amazon...
Fwiw, FPS, while progressive in comparison to PayPal in that its % cut increases as Amazon's costs do, is, unfortunately, limited to US customers at the moment.
