
Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed. - drinko
Looking for YC advice:<p>I am the non technical co founder of a startup, which has been in development mode for 12 months. I took a $30,000 loan and raised some $160,000 in funding from friends and an angel to develop an idea to the proof of concept stage. I found a Django technical developer 14 months ago, and initially have paid her $6900 a month and 6% of the company equity to build a decent prototytpe, with an expectation of ratching it up in the longer term. She quoted it would take her 6 months of full time work to do this.<p>4 months into development, she threatened to bail on the project and raise funding for her own startup idea unless I increased her equity stake to 35%. I was initially very upset by this change, as I had been up front and honest from the beginning and I didn't like the idea of switching terms midway through the project. I felt there was an asymmetry in our risk, as I quit my nursing job to do this and raised all the capital. She also refused to take a pay cut in return for the equity. I had limited alternative developer options to leverage in the situation.<p>I eventually agreed because without a proof of concept,I knew we wouldn't make it, and it seemed we were getting close to launch. I thought I would rather have a real partner than a long term contract developer, and adjusted to the concept if both being in it full time. I have taken a 55% pay cut to work on the startup, and have been paying myself $3000 a months, which comes to about $2400 incomes after taxes.<p>12 months later, we have a partially complete web app, have run out of money, and she has bolted back to her contract gigs. She hasn't finished the work to the point where I can do a beta, as the alpha feedback has not been incorporated into the software.<p>She refuses to invest any of her own money into the idea, I don't want to "get a real job" because I won't be able to work on the startup idea. I have very little money left in the bank. Raising more capital is really hard, because we haven't executed on our milestones. I refuse to give up on the idea, and I know that the window of opportunity is only a few months.<p>I am considering outsourcing the development  to India, so I can get it to a releasable state. I have the source code and am also considering learning Django from scratch: How hard would that be?<p>Where should I go from here? Any thoughts gratefully received.<p>drinko
======
sanswork
I'm not sure I can give any advice to help your situation specifically but I
can say some stuff that might help other non-technically people in the future.

Make sure you have milestones setup in your development process. If she said
it would take 6 months then make sure at 4 months your developer is at a
reasonable place, hell make sure at 2 months that they are, if they aren't
then it's time to reconsider the contract.

If they estimated it would take 6 months to do then by 4 months 90% of the
site should be done, the other 90% is the smaller fixes, tweaks etc that
always take a long time but a good developer will have learned to account for
these in their estimate, but you should have a functioning(although not
totally) site that far in.

I'm not one for micromanaging or the non-technical boss watching over the
hackers shoulder every 2 minutes getting in the way, but it really shouldn't
have been allowed to drag on for 12 months without a product. After missing
the first estimate without a full application(even if it was a buggy one) you
are going to have serious problems and should be looking for someone else
because they are either too inexperienced to estimate their own work, too
inexperienced to break their estimates down, or not doing their work.

~~~
bigtoga
Listen to this person.

------
pg
I realize this won't sound encouraging, but it seems to me that you were
doomed from the start. Whoever writes the code in a web startup has to be a
full cofounder-- which means a friend, not just a stranger you recruited for
this project. You've inadvertantly shown why this custom exists. Trying to
outsource the development would just be repeating the same mistake. Your best
bets would be either to learn to hack, or find a cofounder who can among your
friends.

~~~
mixmax
I can counter that with a real world example. I've done a startup that
succeeded and got a pretty neat product out (which btw. included FPGA
programming, hardware, mobile technology, and web technology - not exactly
easy stuff..) and we had contractors do everything. No hackers aboard. And it
worked.

So it can be done.

~~~
nostrademons
I get the feeling that there's an exception to almost every startup rule.

In my personal experience, I've never seen outsourcing work well, or really
work at all. The first startup I worked at spent $300k to setup an office in
China, paying their developers about $10-15k/year. It would've been a great
deal, except that the China office produced _nothing_ and sucked up the
complete time of both the CTO and chief scientist so they couldn't get
anything done stateside. They would've been far better off writing the code
themselves.

~~~
mixmax
I see your point, and I think that I'm probably one of the few people that
have seen it from both sides - allow me to explain:

The startup I talked about above was some years ago, and I had no idea how to
program anything. It worked out because we were extremely persistent, and
simply didn't take no for an answer. A year ago I thought that it might be a
good idea to actually learn to hack, and so I set about learning it. Now I'm
doing a web-based startup and I have to admit that programming it yourself,
and knowing what the heck you're talking about gives a number of advantages:

1) your dependance on external partners is minimised

2) you can see what features are trivial to do, which are hard, and which are
just impossible.

3) your product becomes better because it is what you want, not someone elses
interpretation of what you want.

4) you don't need a lot of capital, just a lot of time.

~~~
nostrademons
For people that _do_ try to outsource, the crucial question to ask yourself is
"What do I bring to the table that a hacker might need?" I chose to partner
with a non-technical friend (who ended up quitting, but at least he gave me
full ownership of the startup), because this friend was adept at dealing with
people and had connections to several possible angel investors. These are
aspects of the startup experience that terrify me, and so I was more than
happy to let him deal with them.

For your experience, persistence and not taking no are both really important
to startups and very difficult for many technical people. So you added some
value that a hacker couldn't get by just going off and doing the same thing on
his own.

In the startup I mentioned above, the founders were all technical people and
didn't really add anything of business value besides that. They were
outsourcing because it was cheap and out of a misguided assumption that they
needed a big team (and probably because they were spending Other People's
Money). They would've been far better off writing the product themselves.

I don't know enough about drinko to know what s/he brings to the table, but
unless it's a lot of sales connections to potential customers, it'll be hard
for a good programmer to justify spending time on her project vs. all the
other projects out there.

~~~
mixmax
I think that what drino is bringign to the table (this is pure speculation
based on the original post) is knowledge of the domain, and persistence. If
she is good at selling the solution then I think she has a good chance of
succeeding.

An overall note on your post: I think that when you break it all down there
are basically only two things that matter in a startup: 1) having a product.
2) being able to sell it. Often the people that are good at making products
are terrible at selling them and vice versa. So you certainly need good
hackers, but you also need great salesmen. And both of them need to be pretty
persistent, since they're facing tough jobs.

------
kyro
Learning Django isn't difficult at all. If anything, learning Django will be a
huge benefit even if you do find a Django coder. Not only will you be able to
convey your ideas more efficiently by having an understanding of code, but I'm
sure your coder won't feel as much of a slave. Learn Python first:
<http://openbookproject.net//thinkCSpy/> and for Django:
<http://www.djangobook.com/>

If you're really dedicated to continue with the startup idea, and want to
complete your first beta, I'm not sure waiting to learn Django, getting your
feet wet, and developing proficient skills to actually continue the project
would be the best idea, as it would hinder you from launching quickly, if
that's your desire. So, although you may decide to do it on your own, you
should be actively looking for coders.

If you're really out of cash, and you have no family/other sources to borrow
or raise money from, and you need money, then maybe a part time job to start
generating some sort of revenue may serve well.

Also, go to your local Django camps, check out djangogigs.com, get on
listservs, find the Django Google group and post there. Not using Django
should be an option as well, if you happen to come across that gem of a coder
who's willing to take the load and doesn't code in Djnago. Also, applying to
YC could be an option. If you do have some sort of prototype to show, and are
willing to learn to program, you could be paired up with a group, of course
that's all speculation.

Just don't get stuck in a rut of depression. Be rational, and exercise some
damage control, because down the road, you'll probably find yourself in a more
unforgiving storm.

~~~
mrtron
Absolutely agree - hop on the irc channel too, people are extremely helpful
there.

~~~
JayNeely
Mr. Tron is probably referring to the #django channel on irc.freenode.net
(select the Freenode server from the drop-down list on <http://www.mibbit.com>
to connect quickly), but he might also be referring to the #startups channel,
where a lot of people from around here hang out, also on Freenode.

------
pchristensen
Holy crap - you're paying her $83K, plus gave her equity, in _TULSA_?!?!?
That's not exactly a high cost area. If you have $190K and you've paid close
to $100K to her (14 months) just to get a proof of concept, I'd say you're in
trouble. If she's drawing a handsome salary, won't put any of her own money
in, and won't take a pay cut, she can't be that confident in the value of the
equity. Sounds like you got milked.

I wish you luck but I think you've got some serious structural problems, both
in your company and your relationship with this Django girl.

~~~
mpc
83k in tulsa is like making 130k in boston
[http://www.bestplaces.net/col/?salary=83000&city1=46140&...](http://www.bestplaces.net/col/?salary=83000&city1=46140&city2=14460)

That salary is crazy for someone that early, before revenue or major vc
capital. By drawing that huge salary, she is avoiding all the risk and
therefore deserved less equity. I think the 6% you gave her was generous.

~~~
swombat
Generous, but fatal. From the sound of it she was not a good candidate to be a
startup cofounder. Better to give 50% to someone who's going to be as
passionate as you than 1% to someone who's not.

Daniel

------
SwellJoe
Not a lot of people are talking about the very serious problem of your
developer now owning 35% stake in your business. Even _if_ you manage to pull
all of this stuff together by yourself, you're _still_ screwed. You cannot
raise more money as long as there's a "ghost" shareholder...if you do it
without telling the investors about it you're liable to get sued, and if you
tell them about it, they'll do the math and figure that your business has to
be nearly twice as successful for them to make any money on the deal. It's
like she's bought the whole series A round.

If she were actually "all in" on the business, 35% for a developer would be
perfectly acceptable, even if she wasn't taking on as much risk. But, you need
a vesting schedule in these kinds of agreements. At least then, you know you
get four years of labor from the person--or they lose (some or all of) their
stake.

I'd suggest going back to the drawing board (and back to a real job, while you
gather your wits and save up some money). If you can buy out your former
partner (hopefully for a pittance, though it sounds like your former partner
is far more dangerous at the negotiating table than you are), you can
outsource the remainder of the work--with better contracts. Or, learn to code
on nights and weekends and finish it yourself.

But, if you can't buy out her stake, you can't build a business. It's hard
enough to build a profitable business when everybody is working full-time on
it. It's going to be damned near impossible when 35% of your company is doing
nothing for the bottom line. Raising money will be impossible. Making it
profitable will be difficult (while stock holders don't have any particular
right to be paid dividends, at 35% she's got voting rights that have to be
dealt with...depending on where you're incorporated, you might find 35% is a
dangerously high ownership stake). And any exit, unlikely as that is, will be
bitter sweet.

~~~
drinko
29% can be reclaimed in a straightforward manner.

~~~
SwellJoe
Then I would think that would be your first priority. You're SOL as long as
more than a third of your company is dead weight.

------
pistoriusp
Does anyone else think that a salary of $6,900 is too much? I even think that
$3,000 is too much... Of course my situation in South Africa might be a lot
cheaper. I got away with $1,250 per month, and even then I was able to live
pretty comfortably.

~~~
thaumaturgy
Absolutely -- that was a huge red flag for me. That much salary plus equity is
a lot of money.

------
lanej0
It might sound a little slimy (but no worse than what this developer has
pulled on you), but you've given her a 35% stake in THE COMPANY, not the
product, no? You could always shut down the company, sell off the assets (your
prototype) to another company that you start for a dollar and start fresh with
100% equity.

I assume that the 35% equity doesn't actually give her decision-making power?
There's probably a couple of loopholes you can exploit here.

Once you've got your equity back, follow some of the advice here. Get yourself
a real developer, try to get a little more money and release a version 1.
Barring that, cut your features down, and rethink what you really need in
order to get you to the next stage. Something small and simple may be all that
is really essential.

------
mixmax
I've been in pretty much the same situation - being the guy with the idea, not
knowing how to code it and having problems finding developers that were both
talented, got things done and were willing to stick through the hard times. My
solution was simply to learn to code (PHP in my case) and it has been one of
the best decisions I've ever made. I think you should do the same. It's not
all that hard, and there's plenty of help to get if you ask google.

And by the way, it is obvious from your post that you're dedicated and really
want this to succeed - that is the one most important ingredient in success. I
think you have a good chance,

Good luck.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions, my mail is in my profile.

------
mixmax
Drinko - you should really add an e-mail adress to your profile. There's a
pretty godd chance you'll get a mail from someone here that might be
interested in picking it up.

~~~
JayNeely
To clarify, the e-mail address you put in the field specifically for it isn't
visible to anyone. You should type it in the "About" section.

------
tptacek
It sounds to me like this is a set of circumstances where the developer had
most of the leverage, you failed to recognize it, and got burned.

Lots of businesspeople manage low-equity (or no-equity) employees. Their
business isn't jeopardized when one of them threatens to quit. Some of them
are savvy enough to know how to keep projects small and focused and
checkpointable, so they're never more than a milestone into the weeds and can
always hand working code off to the next developer. Others simply pay more
than 80k for a lead developer. Many of them pay large premiums to hired gun
consulting teams who will deliver pro work without caring about equity.

80k may sound really expensive to you. For a startup, it kind of is. But it's
right smack in the middle of the ballpark for an experience Python webdev. It
doesn't sound like you were really doing this person a favor. Chances are,
when she poked her head up and looked around a few months into the project, it
seemed like she was doing all the work and taking a sucker's cut.

She doesn't have to be right about that. She gets to do whatever she wants.
People renegotiate comp _all the time_. You didn't sell her. She left. Learn
more about managing people before you hire or contract more of them.

~~~
drinko
"this is a set of circumstances where the developer had most of the leverage,
you failed to recognize it and got burned"

This is true to a degree. We agreed to the initial arrangement as a fair deal,
but I didn't appreciate the way she swtiched terms on me, and then bailed when
the going got tough. (ie funding ran out)

~~~
aston
Doesn't speak well to her commitment to the company, but she probably was
right about being owed more equity in the company, if only because her leaving
really has taken out a good chunk of the value of the enterprise.

~~~
tptacek
"Commitment to DrinkoCorp" is not actually a virtue, just so we're clear.

~~~
aston
I disagree, at least in the general case. I believe everyone has a basic
responsibility for the well-being of others (insofar as you can reasonably
help), and so even if the negotiated agreement is bad I think it's more
virtuous to end on good terms. Threatening to quit just because you have a ton
of leverage isn't illegal or immoral, but I'd look down on somebody who did it
as prizing money over relationships, which to me is definitely a vice.

~~~
tptacek
If relationships are paramount, everyone should have the same equity stake.
What's the formula that gets you from 50% to 6% for $6000/mo? Just a thought.

------
omfut
That’s a hard spot to be in. I can hear your pain on how you want you idea to
be launched. Honestly, learning django is no brainer. Django guys have done an
amazing job building the framework. On a side note, why is your prototype
taking that long? In today’s world, you can build complex apps faster than you
can think off. Here is some links that can be handy for your django learning.
All the best!

This is a excellent wiki with lot of tutorial/information/samples about django
<http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/Tutorials>
[http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/nov/16/django-tips-get-
mos...](http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2006/nov/16/django-tips-get-mos..).
<http://www.b-list.org/weblog/2007/sep/04/django-accelerated/>
<http://www.slideshare.net/simon/advanced-django/>
<http://djangoplugables.com/> <http://www.djangoproject.com/community/>
<http://djangobook.com>
[http://showmedo.com/videos/video?name=1100000&fromSeries...](http://showmedo.com/videos/video?name=1100000&fromSeries..).
<http://showmedo.com/videos/series?name=v7kABKL6R>
<http://blog.disqus.net/2007/03/11/a-django-primer/>
[http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-django...](http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-django..).

------
redorb
I think she made a "douche-move" by upping her equity forcefully while still
taking $6,900/mo - To be honest no matter the turn out your better without her
cause she is lacking integrity.

~~~
tptacek
Why? Even at 35%, she's got much less equity than the original founder. If her
market value is 80k, and they're taking salaries, what do you expect her to
do?

Talent is a marketplace. It isn't owed to anybody.

~~~
redorb
because she agreed to 6% and $6,900/mo (a lot more than the founder) ... I
think loyalty means something, be loyal to what you agree to; or quit... but
don't hold the whole company hostage being selfish. I still stick with the
"better off without her" mantra here.

~~~
tptacek
How did she hold the company hostage? She did quit.

~~~
run4yourlives
I don't think anyone is saying that she (the dev) didn't use her leverage to
her advantage. We all recognize that it was the OP's fault to give her that
leverage in the first place.

However in business, relationships and "karma" - for lack of a better term -
are really what things are about. There are times when you should be looking
at maximizing your position, and there are other times when you should be
looking to cooperate in order to maximize a collective position.

Many of the people here (myself included) are simply stating that the dev
displayed poor business acumen by being too aggressive in taking advantage of
another's weaker position. The key being who that other person is - her
supposed partner.

Partnerships need to have a level of loyalty beyond any particular transaction
or they simply won't work.

~~~
nostrademons
I'm speculating here, but I'm guessing that when she took the job, she thought
"Sure, this'll be a cinch. I get a full salary, and if it works out, a nice
bonus." Then it turned out the job was much harder than she expected, she saw
the founder with 94% doing basically nothing, and said "Dude, if I'm going to
slave away with this code for months, I should get founder-level shares.
Otherwise, I could just do what you're doing and take the 94% you're getting"
and tried to renegotiate for a stake that'd make the development pain
worthwhile. The OP refused, so she walked.

Chalk it up to first-time founder mistakes on both sides. Almost everybody
drastically underestimates the amount of effort required to get a startup off
the ground. So what seems acceptable at first ("yeah, this won't be hard for
me, I can whip it off for you") starts to feel like you're getting massively
ripped off later.

And I totally agree with the comments on other subthreads that she's probably
not a very good Django dev. I wouldn't be surprised if this is her first
Django project. I remember that I expected my first PHP project to take 3
months; it ended up taking 3 years (I didn't charge for it; it was a volunteer
project in college).

~~~
drinko
nostrademons, please re-read the original post.

I never had 94%

I was eventually ok with giving up founder level share, but expected founder
level commitment. This is where the gap lies.

------
luckystrike

      I refuse to give up on the idea, and I know that the window of opportunity is only a few months.
      I am considering outsourcing the development to India, so I can get it to a releasable state.
    

Since the window of opportunity is only a few months, i would strongly suggest
not to look at the outsourcing option to India (or anywhere else). One, you
would have a difficult time in finding out the right set of people (skill
wise). Two, establishing a good working relationship takes a bit of time,
especially working across geographies. A small startup pushing towards it's
first beta is probably not the right time to start using the outsourcing
model. (Side-note: I am a developer based out of India)

You have got a lot of good suggestions on the way forward from here. I would
also endorse you seeking out the Django experts on this forum who have offered
help. At the bare minimum, they can review the code and tell you where exactly
you are and how much more effort it would take to make a beta release.

Alongside, you can get some legal advice on getting out of this partnership
with the least possible damage to you and your ethics.

Learning to code obviously would be helpful, and it really ain't that
difficult.

Don't worry about this temporary setback, just get back up and give it a shot
again. Being in the medical field, am sure you would have seen people fighting
and coming out strong from far more difficult situations.

Good Luck.

------
alex_c
It is hard to say without knowing more about your web app, but my first
instinct was that 6 months of full time development seems like a really long
time for a prototype, especially for a start-up. As one data point,
clutterme.com took me about one week to prototype, and about 4 months to a
public beta (and I did not consider myself an experienced developer at the
time).

Unfortunately, it is more difficult for a developer to step into a project
this late and be up to speed right away. For example, if your original
developer had 1 month of work left to completion, it might take a new
developer 2 months to learn the system and complete the remaining work. (this
depends greatly on the complexity of the system and on the quality and clarity
of the code you have at this point).

My advice would be to find a good developer you trust (not always easy, I
know) and get them to look at what you have so far. Get them to look at your
specs and requirements and design docs. Get them to look at your source code
so far. Talk about what is left to do. This will take a few days, maybe a
week. Pay them for their time. The goal is to get a professional opinion on
the state of the current codebase (at this point I imagine there is little
trust left in the original developer, so I would also treat any claims of
progress they made as suspect), an estimate of how much work is left, and
their opinion on how best to proceed (outsource, hire another developer, try
it yourself).

It's hard to give more specific advice without diving into the details of your
project, and you will be proceeding blindly otherwise. It sounds like you
can't afford to make any more mistakes.

------
plaggypig
I might be able to help you salvage something (at least a working prototype)
pro-bono if you'd like to contact me (my username @gmail.com).

~~~
mrtron
Hell, I also would be willing to help you at least deploy or something to get
rolling. Regardless of circumstances, you are in an unfortunate situation.
Best of luck. (email in profile)

------
iamelgringo
OK, so here's a problem. Even if you do get someone from this site to help
you, Ms. Django owns 35% of your company regardless. Best case scenario,
someone helps you, the product takes off, you have a big exit... you still
have to pay her 35%. That's a big problem. The only way that you're going to
get rid of her is to close the company and start over.

And, she's wasted 14 months of your time with precious little to show for it.
As far as I'm concerned if you work on a Django project for 14 months and have
little to show for it, your developer is incompetent.

Start over. Chalk it up to a lesson learned. Pick up a couple of books and
start learning how to code yourself. That way, you'll know if your next co-
founder is producing crap or not. And, you just may be able to code something
up yourself.

Pick up a prn job just to cover the bills. I'm a nurse, I moved to Silicon
Valley, and you can get a prn job out here that pays $75 an hour pretty easy.
We have people the commute from Dallas and Oregon to work here. Fly in, work 6
days straight, make 5K and then fly back. Consider it. You'll also make
contacts in Silicon Valley which is very valuable.

~~~
Xichekolas
> We have people the commute from Dallas and Oregon to work here. Fly in, work
> 6 days straight, make 5K and then fly back.

How do I get that sweet deal? I assume I need to be a nurse, but are such gigs
really that plentiful? I could work like three weeks a year at that rate.

~~~
iamelgringo
Most hospitals in the Bay area offer "per diem" (4+ shifts a month) positions
for nurses like that. The going rate is from $60-80 per hour depending on your
shift, experience and position. $70/hr x 12hr shifts x 6 days = $5k gross.

But, yeah. Hospitals nation wide are chronically short of staff and California
is certainly no exception. Gigs like that are fairly easy to come by if you
work it right.

A lot of hospitals are willing to work with you and schedule you all in a row
like that if they know you. Many nurses come to the Bay area as a contract
nurses on a 3 month contract. They develop a relationship with a department or
manager, and then sign on as a per diem and arrange their schedule so they
work 6 shifts in a row at the end of one pay period and the beginning of the
next one.

I think there will be more and more of this since there is such a disparity in
pay between nursing wages in the South and wages in the Bay and in California
in general. A nurse in Alabama can work their heart out for $20-25 an hour
taking care of 6-8 patients at a time in the ER, while the same nurse in
California will make 2-3 times that and care for no more than 4 patients at a
time (state mandated staffing ratios).

Staffing ratios mean that hospitals _have_ to maintain minimum staffing levels
and if they don't they get in trouble with the state. That means that nursing
salaries go up and they're willing to have nurses commute from TX, or Oregon
or wherever.

------
drinko
i am near Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We have a prototype, but not one I would be able to release, as it needs a lot
of user interface refining.

It is an online web app service for patients with chronic conditions that
helps them manage their problems and has some social network features. (I am a
nurse)

~~~
tptacek
If the backend and basic interaction works, there are tens of consultancies
who can turn it into a presentable, usable, launchable web application. For a
complex application, you're probably looking at 15-25k.

~~~
tptacek
No, really, there are. =)

~~~
allenbrunson
i assume you made this comment because somebody downmodded you for no real
reason? that seems to be happening a lot in the last few days. i'm seeing lots
of comments at zero points that didn't deserve it, so i bump them back up to
one.

i think we've got a silent karma troll.

~~~
tptacek
Sorry, I just thought it was amusing. I don't really care. To make this thread
slightly more productive, I will recommend one such consultancy: Blue Flavor.

~~~
andreyf
_I will recommend one such consultancy: Blue Flavor._

Since you're plugging them, could you disclose your relationship?

~~~
tptacek
I'm a security researcher, not a web dev, so I'll just say there's no possible
conflict.

------
sonink
Even if you are able to get it out with the help of another developer(on
contract or otherwise) it still doesnt cut it because this is just beta and
there is a long way ahead for you to build a business.

For this reasons, and still more, I would suggest that to take this forward
you absolutely need a technical co-founder. Try to find one, and even if you
have to give a very high (~40-45% stake) consider it a good deal.

Additionally, 12 months is too long a time for beta. Cut down your featureset
ruthlessly so that only the ones required to expose the core functionality of
your site remain.

------
run4yourlives
Ouch. I suppose the moral of this story is to make sure you draw a line
between employee and partner right up front, and be very firm about the roles.
Obviously, ee's get a paycheck and little else, and partners equity and a
little paycheck. Sounds like you put yourself in the position where an ee
could hold you for ransom. You were paying her a good salary, and she had no
risk. Lesson learned huh?

So what do you do now? You need to sever the relationship with this person,
first and foremost. How much work is there left to do? If it's less than 25%,
outsource this (doesn't have to be india... many dev's will be ok to pick it
up, especially if there could be an upside - in the future). You should/could
learn django regardless, since you should be aware of what your system does in
the end.

If you've got more than 25% to do, you should really learn to finish this
yourself. I'm learning django and python at the same time, and honestly it
isn't difficult if you have a programming background. Be aware that you may
need to move this to the back burner and take a job to get by.. you won't be
able to move as fast as she did. You may also be able to find some devs on YC
here that might be interested in negotiating on more favorable terms. Not all
programmers can look at things that way, but most here can.

Good luck to you, and if you see me on IRC (django) I go by the same user
name.

~~~
tptacek
Not to be argumentative, but just to talk straight: you can "draw lines"
between employer and employee all you want, but if both parties are rational,
it's the market that enforces the line, not you.

In other words, if you bring very little to the table, and your "employee"
brings a lot to the table, you're setting yourself up to fail by being "clear"
about an untenable arrangement.

~~~
run4yourlives
I think this example shows that the market has nothing to do with anything -
it's people's perception that matters. It this particular case the dev won.
I'll give you that most of the time it works the other way around.

Clearly, the poster underestimated her position and overestimated the dev's
ability and that's what got her in trouble. With more knowledge, she could
easily see that a django dev isn't worth 80K + 35%! In fact, I'm sure she'd
get some bites (provided a solid idea) for the 35% alone from some very
experienced people.

If the market did enforce the line, we wouldn't be having this discussion. :-)

~~~
tptacek
I think we're agreed in principal and opposed semantically --- if drinko's
position was better, a dev quitting wouldn't matter to her.

Strong disagree that a Django dev isn't worth 80k+35%. Sure, I wouldn't pay
anything close to that, but I have a mature thriving company. But on day 1,
without the capital to contract the project out, that could be a totally fair
deal.

Am I totally wrong about how much Django devs make relative to PHP or Rails
devs? Because my experience is they make more than 80k if they're good and
have any business aptitude. They certainly get billed out higher than that.

~~~
run4yourlives
No, I think an 80K mark is good for a salary. What I disagree with is that a
brand new startup should be hiring an 80K dev right out of the blocks like
that.

This startup needs a technical partner, not an employee, imo. So, you'd be
looking at upwards of a 50% share with nowhere near that salary requirement.

BTW - Billing rates rarely translate into salaries in any normal fashion. Two
different markets, and the billing rate one tends to be much more
inflationary.

------
huhtenberg
So what exactly do you do on a daily basis that effectively prevents you from
"getting a real job" ? To put it bluntly - I can't really think of what a non-
tech person can be doing full-time for 12 months while waiting for the beta to
be done.

~~~
Kaizyn
Well, from what we have been told so far, this is a medical startup. Which
means that there's a good deal of regulations and rules that someone has to
learn how the company should handle. Since they took investment money, that
means that there are investors to cope with. Also, there's that inconvenient
issue of working with potential users to learn what they need. Again, because
this is related to the medical field, user relations will be more involved
than it would be for a twitter or a reddit. The unfortunate thing about this
case is that drinko could have forgone hiring a developer and spent an
additional 2+ years to learn how to program and build the site with the
investment funding.

~~~
huhtenberg
From what I gather it's a social networking site for people with certain
medical condition(s). I might be wrong but this is hardly a "medical startup"
and thus it's not likely to require extensive certification/compliance
paperwork (if any at all). Besides this paperwork would've needed to be
handled by the lawyers.

I can see the logic in your UI comment, but again - 12 months ? That's enough
to design and polish the UI of a Boeing cockpit :)

~~~
tomh
Not so fast - there are laws on the books like HIPAA that govern patient
confidentiality and protectected health information. If she's selling to
'covered entities' under HIPAA they have to subscribe to a certain level of
security or anonymity in their systems.

Why do you think MSFT and GOOG are so slow to enter this space? Because of all
the hidden rules, regulations and pitfalls of the medical industry. Our poster
probably has a good handle on this, or has been working hard to get a handle
on this in the last 12 months.

------
Xichekolas
I hate to say it, but the fact that she wanted market rates _AND_ equity
should have been a tip off that she didn't care about the idea. If I care
about an idea, I'll work on it for free (and maybe a bit of equity). If all I
care about is getting paid, I'll focus much more on the salary, and that seems
like what she did here.

If she was planning to ride it out long term, she would've definitely demanded
more equity up front, and she would have offered to take a lower salary. It's
not financially stupid to take as low a salary as possible in a startup. Lower
salaries = more runway = more chance of eventual success = equity stake is
worth something = rich.

------
anerkie33
I see a couple of mistakes right off the bat.

Write the contract so that no ownership interest is achieved until a Series A
funding event. For every hour that the technician works, they accrue the same
hourly rate figure in an options account. This way when the startup is funded,
the developer's percentage is determined by the value of their options account
against the VC's valuation, not some arbitrary point like 6% It's much harder
for someone to walk away from $100,000 in equity than it is a theoretical 6%

Should have included a clause whereby the equity would disappear if the
developer quits.

35% is rather outrageous for any founder in a company that has raised
significant amounts of funding, let alone a well paid one.

To echo other comments, 12 months to create a prototype in Django seems like a
_very_ long time. Either the developer _sucked_ or was working on other
projects on the side. It is also possible that the requirements kept changing
mid-flight and this was a management problem.

Outsourcing to India may work or it may not. Regardless, at this point you
need to pay based on results instead of time.

Good luck.

------
johnrob
I think you need to find a new technical co-founder. Or, raise more
investment. Neither of these are easy of course, but startups are tough.

You probably have to really love your idea in order to stick with it. Reading
your post made me think about the most recent PG essay ("be good"):

<http://paulgraham.com/good.html>

Specifically, this quote:

The added confidence that comes from trying to help people can also help you
with investors. One of the founders of Chatterous told me recently that he and
his cofounder had decided that this service was something the world needed, so
they were going to keep working on it no matter what, even if they had to move
back to Canada and live in their parents' basements.

Once they realized this, they stopped caring so much what investors thought
about them. They still met with them, but they weren't going to die if they
didn't get their money. And you know what? The investors got a lot more
interested. They could sense that the Chatterouses were going to do this
startup with or without them.

------
tptacek
One thing I heard here is that drinko may be epsilon away from a credible demo
--- the pieces are there, it's just not presentable.

A next step may not be "outsource to India", but rather to hire someone for a
few days to document and report what's there and what's working and estimate
how many hours it will take to get it to a demo.

That's a small project ($2k-$3k at the going daily rate for indie Python devs)
and at the end of it drinko gets enough info to make a sane decision.

Drinko may be screwed --- her dev's demands aren't crazy, but as run4yourlife
points out, her accomplishments over 12 months (!) probably don't justify
them. This may be a case where someone should have been fired after weeks, not
years. In that case, she may be starting from scratch.

But if both parties were acting in good faith, Drinko may be a short contract
away --- maybe even a pure "skinning" HTML+CSS UI project away --- from a demo
that will generate customer interest, help her get more funding, and attract a
better quality of developer.

------
jdavid
Ok, so this is what happens to startups, step two survive.

The first thing you need to do is get her to either sign a non-compete, sign
away the company, or make you an offer to buy out her shares. Something legal
might be necessary. If she is willing to sign a non-compete, and finish the
project that is what you want, else, options 2 and 3 are on the table.

Next you need to finish your project. <http://uservoice.com/> provides an
outsourced software feedback engine for a website. If your feedback engine is
more specific to your business process then you need still need to hire a
developer.

At this point in the process, if you need to find a technical co-founder, i
would skip it and go right for a freelance developer. You have developed most
of the idea, and now you just need to round the corners, this is a perfect job
for someone that just wants a pay check. I suggest 2 options to finding a
developer.

Option 1, go your local colleges TODAY! and talk to career services. You might
be able to find a programmer that can pick up fairly quickly what your
previous developer did. You might be able to get away with $10-$20 an hour.

Option 2, i have heard of good things from
<http://programmermeetdesigner.com/>, or another place to pay someone for a
project.

Ok, so the final thing you need to do is to raise more money. Either sell the
app now on a trial basis or something. You might be able to get some cash in
the door to help with legal fees, and to pay your new designer. You might find
it easier to see if you can get another $50k right now from an Angel,
Prosper.com, or from a potential customer that might loan you the money.

I hope that helps. If your product is medical related, I know some people who
might be able to help you in Wisconsin.

~~~
nostrademons
"You have developed most of the idea, and now you just need to round the
corners, this is a perfect job for someone that just wants a pay check."

I'm not sure this is the case. It sounds like the "it's nearly done" is based
on the developer's word, and there isn't actually anything demoable right now.
If that's true, and given that it's taken her 12 months to finish a _Django_
website, I think it's a good bet that all her existing code is unusable and
will have to be thrown out. If you understand Django, it should not take you a
year to finish a website; more likely, the dev doesn't understand Django and
doesn't really have anything working.

~~~
jdavid
you maybe right, every time someone left on one of our projects, we forfeited
the code. ...and we are developers, it was always easier for us to take what
we learned from the previous code, and then to design something simpler and
more elegant. one of our guys has really turned me on to the track of design
for use, and not for maintenance. Which tends to get stuff out of the door.

You know another option is for drinko to start a new company, and license the
tech from this company to the new one, to avoid all of the bullshit.

Drinko, in all likelyhood, you are starting over at this point. I have seen 3
projects fail this way. Your BEST BET is to learn to code.

------
JayNeely
Okay. Let's take stock. From what I understand...

 _Your Resources:_

* A partially complete web app, for patients with chronic conditions; helps them manage their problems & has some social network features.

* Feedback from your alpha testing.

* 45% equity in the company (with the ability to recover the extra 29%), which owns all of the IP.

* A limited amount of time before you must seek means to support yourself.

 _Your Goals:_

* Develop your web app to a beta-worthy release.

* Get funds to develop to a point where you can charge, or maintain it long enough to exit.

 _Your Obstacles:_

* Your user-interface isn't presentable enough to for your app to go public.

* Without a developer, you have no means to improve the front-end of your app, or implement new features.

* You have no funding left, very little personal money, and debt.

 _What I think your plan should be:_

1) Ask yourself if you truly believe that your app can be satisfactorily
profitable. Ask yourself if you're willing to work hard over the next 2 years
(at least) to make it happen.

2) Reduce your expenses as much as possible. You said your monthly outgoing is
$2,000. If I can live on $800/month in Boston, you can reduce your expenses to
at least $1k to $1.5k. This pushes back your horizon for total cash failure.

3) Increase your income, even if it's just a short-term influx of cash.
Whether it's through another loan, selling non-essential assets, or fully-
booking half a month with temporary gigs.

4) Learn to code, and instead of continuing development, modify your user-
interface to a level where you can release to users. Forget about advanced
features. Basic functionality in a working interface, with the promise of
advanced functionality, can get enough signups to take you to the next step.

5) Offset costs, and/or get to profitability. You haven't shared your business
model; if it's offering the app as a white-label service to institutions,
focus on getting your first customers once you have the basic functionality in
a working interface. A modest amount of users, however dispersed, should be
enough to at least demonstrate interest, and get them to license it from you
on a trial basis.

If you're intending to monetize it through users directly, charging isn't
feasible until you're offering advanced functionality, and advertising isn't
feasible until you have a ton of users. But affiliate sales can generate
income with even a modest number of users, and it's likely that the nature of
their conditions makes them likely consumers for specialized products,
possibly that are highly profitable.

6) Focus development on rapid iteration. Prioritize your feature list by
simplicity and usefulness, and either split your attention between adding
small, useful features one at a time while working on the larger improvements,
or outsource development of the small stuff(one at a time, so you build
relationships and can measure quality) and focus solely on the larger
improvements.

7) After the three to six months the above should take you, take stock again
and consider if you want to get another co-founder (if there are some _really_
large improvements that need to be made that are out of your coding league
completely), and/or seek more funding.

8) Let us know how it goes!

------
epi0Bauqu
Have you considered dissolving the company (with her signature), transferring
the IP to a new company and then starting fresh with a 50/50 co-founder?

If you can sell another hacker on your idea, they may take it to the next
stage (prototype finished) for no up front cost beyond the equity.

------
9oliYQjP
Now is the time to be honest with yourself. You need to find out why she left.
People usually complain about money/equity issues when they think the
situation is so crappy that only money/equity can keep them in the situation.
Was there a lot of scope creep?

Let me pose this hypothetical situation. You contract with this developer to
create your web app before you have fully spec'd it out. But that's okay
because you're using more of an agile approach. The developer gets on with her
job of creating a basic prototype and you tackle issues as they arise. Things
begin to change and you see want a few minor changes to the web app. The
developer not being very assertive, says okay to most change requests. But 6
months in things have changed so much that the developer realizes that this
project will be in perpetual beta. You are frustrated because the developer
hasn't finished when she said she would. She's frustrated because she realizes
just how extensive the web app is and that she underestimated the amount of
work that would be involved (and with the feature creep there is even more
work now to boot). Both of you are so far away from the original terms of the
agreement that the whole thing leaves a sour taste in your mouth. She can
walk. But you're left with the tab.

If this sounds like your situation, I know it won't make you feel any better,
but it's a common story. I think what you need to do is offer the developer a
way to save face while helping get you out of your current rut. Chances are
she's not very proud of having bailed on the project, nor does she want bad
word of mouth to spread. She was probably frustrated. Can you identify her
frustrations and address them? If so, can you talk her into re-joining the
team and giving her the 35% equity? Right now, you have 94% of a whole lot of
nothing. If she doesn't want to re-join fully, ask her if she will help
document the project and transition it to another developer for you. If she
does this, you will give her the existing 6% equity in the company. If she
flat out refuses to talk to you, keep your composure and be polite but let her
know that under the circumstances you feel her monthly payments were more than
acceptable compensation and she has no equity. If this happens, your money is
gone and isn't worth pursuing. But I would contact a lawyer in order to sort
out this non-documented partnership. You will want her to sign something
because right now there are a whole bunch of ugly intellectual property
ownership issues that you are at risk of down the road.

~~~
drinko
She left because we ran out of money.

Scope creep was limited.

The company owns the IP - we did sign paperwork on that.

In case it isn't clear, at the time I did agree to giving her the 35% in
equity. I currently own 45%.

She has agreed to documenting and transitioning the app.

~~~
9oliYQjP
Damn. I feel for you then. If she's gone, she's gone. Fat chance she'll even
document/transition the app. She's probably gambling on the fact you have no
money to pay another developer so she figures she won't have to do it.

As others have said... learn to program. Consider it a character building
exercise. I don't see too many other ways out of this situation.

That said, I don't think she was being malicious here. Most of these stories
don't involve malicious folks. But when working with contractors you have to
factor significant cost overruns as a reality. The work will be costlier and
take longer than you expect.

EDIT: I also forgot to add. This is a litmus test. If she thought that her
work would yield dividends, she might just bite the bullet and work for free
until everything is finished. But she's not. She doesn't have confidence in
the viability of your product/service. You might want to probe her and ask
why. If you aren't going to get much out of her, you may as well at least try
to get some feedback.

------
suboptimal
My advice is to get a temporary e-mail address and put it in your HN profile.
I'm sure you'll find some help.

------
Mistone
this is a very tough position, and I certainly applaud your openness - it
takes guts to get on here and tell your story.

I cannot imagine having paid this person so much money, $6900 is a lot of
money, x12 is like a well paying job. To have her leave without finishing is
horrible.

As your pretty far into it, all I can say is you must get to market fast. My
#1 suggestion is hitting your network, find a good developer to consult with,
have help you put together a road map for completion then consider your
options.

Don't loose faith and don't spend another dime until you have a clear path to
launch planned out. Good luck boss!

------
Mantwon
Hey, I've developed a few django apps and am always looking for new projects.

two of my more recent projects were <http://www.serious-internet.biz> and
<http://www.soshal.com>.

if you want to talk, you can reach me at mantwon ----at---- soshal.com

------
ejs
Sounds like a rough spot to be in. Where are you located? Depending on your
location you may be able to meet someone that is fairly experienced and can
work with the existing code.

It is hard to give any advice because we know very little about the actual
application you are building. 12 months and no prototype sounds very long to
me and maybe some of the more time consuming features should be cut and the
rest buttoned up to have a working demo.

Could you explain the idea so that we could get a better idea of the
difficulty?

------
bapbap
I was in the process of writing a long post but here it is in a few points:

Ditch her. You don't need her and her screwy demands. That's pretty decent
pay, I wouldn't have given her any equity. Do what you can to part ways as
soon as you can.

Find another developer, on a contract no equity basis, if you can afford it
somehow. If you can't you'll need to offer equity. Learning Python from
scratch is an option but not a good one in my opinion. If you can afford to
outsource, you can probably afford a semi-decent developer who is prepared to
accept a decent sized share. Try and find someone who isn't going to screw you
over, look worldwide and not just in your own backyard. As most of the work is
done and you just need to get things refined to release an alpha or beta, it
shouldn't take too much money in development costs. Then you can start whoring
it out and getting some money to get things going.

I don't know what anyone else thinks but don't pay yourself. Invest all you
can into the business. If it means you can only check on progress for an hour
a day and you need to work part-time or full-time in Starbucks, then that's
what you are going to have to do. Run it like you would a normal business. No
one I know would have paid themselves that well before they've even started.
If the idea and execution is good, it's a sacrifice worth making.

Good luck.

~~~
awt
I worked as a rails developer for less equity and less pay in Silicon Valley
for almost a year -- I thought it was a pretty fair deal too.

~~~
tptacek
Are you any good? Are you still looking? I'll beat that number.

~~~
awt
Currently employed at near market value :)

------
samuel
Buff, that's bad luck. You are in a difficult situation but I really envy your
bravery. Definitely you are commited with your project, and I hope that will
be the key for your success.

Developing the app yourself it's not an option, unless you have a decent
background in programming, with obviously it's not the case. Some knowledge of
how things work may be worthwhile, though.

You need to find a good developer: if he or she is in the US, India or Europe
is irrelevant. The problem is you can't know if someone is good developer or
not, as you are not one yourself. A safe bet would be an entrepeneur with
experience who could show you his past work but it will be expensive so
definitely you need to raise more money.

It's easier to find an undergraduate willing to do the job but that will be
like playing the russian roulette, may be it will work but may be it won't.

Something I don't understand is: what are you have been doing in the last
year? If you don't code, and you don't have customers yet, Why did you quit
your job?

------
pmcmas
I am on my fourth start up and have completed the entire collection of
Murphy's Law.

As much as I hate to say it, you need to find a decent attorney to discuss the
entire situation. He will file a suit against her and you will most likly get
part of your $$$ back. The cost to meet and file will be probably 2K.

She must be held accountable for her actions.

PMCM

------
opportunity
Hey Drinko, Normally when you give equity, their shares do not vest for at
least 4 years. This is usually the case in most of the employee contracts.
Also usually if any co-founder/employee leaves before an year she gets no
equity. This is the standard.

As for getting the project finished, realistically learning django now is not
an option. Outsourcing is an option but I wouldn't recommend it. You don't
want to outsource your development at this early stage in your company.

Your best bet to getting the project finished is to threaten to fire your
current developer. If she is fired before 12 months, she does not get any
equity. Don't repeat the mistake of giving more equity/money to a third-grade
developer who hasn't been able to get a working prototype in 12 months.

~~~
tptacek
I wouldn't sign on to a startup with no employees, no code, no long-term
funding, and no revenue for a 6% (or 35%) vested stake.

------
dangoldin
There may be some legal action you could take - did you sign a contract with
the developer? It won't solve your problem but it may get you some money back
so you can divert it to some other development.

At the moment, I think you need to get an opinion from a real developer who
can look at the code and the project design to see how long it would take to
get it to the prototype stage. Depending on that I would try to get more
funding in order to implement it while at the same time pursuing the legal
route and trying to get your money back.

Also, learning Django may seem a little overwhelming at first but it's not too
difficult - you can usually find the answers to any questions online.

~~~
drinko
no project contract was signed - I was naive and had met her through a mutual
friend, so I thought I could trust her and we could save some money.

There is a contract for the company set and equity structure.

~~~
bigtoga
Then write up a legal agreement that says she must be with the company for "x"
years to earn the equity. Add in a little extra incentives for signing it
("Dual monitors!"). Once she signs it, fire her.

Regarding legal costs, I've used Pre-Paid Legal's Small Business Plan for a
year. It costs $69/month and they do all sorts of stuff (and things like
contract review are free). It isn't perfect but it has saved me the hassle of,
"Should I sign this? Should I do it like this?" since I no longer have to
worry about money when it comes to important legal decisions. URL:
<http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/legalzoom/SBpage2b.html>

------
patrickg-zill
I would avoid India as the people I know who have tried it, have had serious
quality problems.

I would investigate the offers of people on this forum (including me: patrick
at zill dot net) to assist in some way.

I would start learning Django but, would not make it a full time effort as
there are other things to work on, no doubt.

I would immediately contact a lawyer and work on reducing or eliminating the
35% stake. As far as I am concerned, reducing it to 0% is wholly acceptable.

At the very least have the lawyer send her a letter stating that the work she
was to perform and which she was paid to do, was not completed and was not up
to acceptable standards. This can form the basis of denying the equity stake
later.

------
menloparkbum
Quasi-medical record keeping applications like this are boring. SUPER boring.
Constantly rethinking your career as a programmer boring. French movie
character experiencing existential despair boring.

Nobody outside of the medical world could possibly care about this stuff or
get excited to work on it. Hardly anyone INSIDE the medical profession cares
about it. Entire entry-level careers have been created for ths type of thing
(medical records specialist) because nobody who can do something else wants to
do it. I'm surprised your programmer ONLY wanted $6900 a month. Boredom is the
real reason she didn't get much done and eventually left. Also, let me
guess... she also hated your guts because she was sitting here working on this
super boring application while you were out doing stuff she perceived as not
very important.

This isn't meant to be insulting. I had an experience similar to yours. Nearly
identical, aside from the duration and money involved. I didn't get paid as
much and I bailed after 4 months. We even were using Python! I was the
programmer. Other person was a doctor. Building some sort of medical record
keeping startup thing. He was paying me ok, but not great. I had some
laughably low percentage of the company. After the first two weeks, I
alternated between wanting to kill him and wanting to kill myself. It sucked
that bad. Medical record keeping is insanely boring. The programming issues
are equivalently boring. It is like doing your taxes multiplied by 1000. It
sucks. SUCKS. The hardest part of your programmer's day was probably mustering
up the psychic energy needed to even fire up her text editor. I'm almost
having a nervous breakdown right now just thinking about it. You medical
people have really gotten yourself into a record-keeping pickle.

Your only hope is to learn programming because any programmer that is any good
will want to disembowel themselves working on this sort of project. There is a
real opportunity here, because all this work is going to end up being done by
huge mega consulting firms who specialize in these sorts of boring
recordkeeping problems. They are going to charge $69,000,000 per month to do
this. The thing is, they don't really want to do it either, so I'm sure they
will gladly pay you at least $6,900,000 for the right to license your finished
software. That is reality.

------
andreyf
Eat a hearty meal, get a good night's sleep, and think about it in the
morning.

There's a Russian saying "the morning is wiser than the time between late
afternoon and night". It sounds better in Russian (3 words).

~~~
rbanffy
Oh. Please. Post the three words.

~~~
andreyf
Utro vechera mudrenee. Morning evening wiser. Evening! That's the word I
couldn't think of :-P

And here's a song about evening:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KoNUYLBnX8>

------
ChaitanyaSai
As others have mentioned here, you definitely should add a visible email
address in your profile.

You are understandably hesitant about starting django from scratch. There's
nothing to fear and you can pick it up.

Most importantly, outsourcing it to India isn't necessary. You want good
coders who can be hired on the cheap, especially during summer time? Try
undergraduate and graduate students. I don't have the faintest clue as to what
your idea is, but if one person working normal hours got you to this stage in
12 months, you can definitely pay two guys 15,000 for 4 months and get
something great. Picking the right people might be a challenge given that you
may not be able to judge their hacking skills well. That is something you can
crowdsource here perhaps (or Topcoder; has/can anyone used it for that
purpose)? You can email me if you'd like to pursue the idea.

------
khangtoh
@drinko,

I feel sorry for you but here's what my advice would have been (although it
would not have helped you in this situation) but typically when I contract out
my project to someone else other than myself, I normally would include a
deliverable clause in a contract, even if the other party is a cofounder.

The deliverable clause is basically a statement of work, with specific
milestones and dates that the "contractor" would agree to. This helps in
keeping the project realistic (in terms of scope creeps) and also makes sure
that the project progress in good terms.

I would have to agree with most people who commented about the salary paid
out. At $6900, you could have hired an outstanding developer without dishing
out any equity. Although the equity play more than often would help as a
motivational push for the other party.

------
joanou
First dilute here ownership to next to nothing. Second: I haven't had much
success in India. The turnover was too high and I found myself managing via
spreadsheets and Skype way too much. Third: Keep your costs minimal and look
for more funding. My $0.02

------
lvecsey
Is this an application that will run on your own web servers, or do you intend
businesses and individuals to install it on their own machines? If the latter
you might consider whether your business can flourish under a GPL license with
the option of a community interest to improve the software.

My immediate suggestion would be to get the code checked into a private
repository, hosted at github or elsewhere. Then with a high volume laser
printer on hand, get into a routine where you print out your code base on a
weekly basis.

At that point its just a matter of hiring some folks to take a look at what
you have, as far as the code base goes, before deciding who to pay next to
advance the project.

------
felipe
Sorry for this bad situation. What I would do in your situation is to try to
pre-sell this solution to potential customers (hospitals, healthcare
companies, etc... You definitely have a leverage there as a nurse). Once you
get a few commitments (and that will take a lot of "nos" and paper prototyping
back-and-forth), then it will be much easier to recruit someone to develop the
app for equity-only, or you might even be able to get an hospital to pay for
it.

There's a _great_ book called "Bootstrapping" by Greg Gianforte, that outlines
this process of pre-selling without a product. I highly recommend you to at
least take a look at the first chapters.

------
mynameishere
Learn to code.

~~~
suboptimal
Upmodded--I think this was sincere advice (wasn't it?).

~~~
mynameishere
It just seems like the only option.

------
huherto
First, I feel bad for you. I wish you the best.

What would I do?

1.- Evaluate the quality of the product you have so far. I am sure there are
people here that can help you with that.

2.- Try to get back the 35% from her. I think is the least she can do.

3.- Find a good technical co-founder. If you have a good idea and a good
product somebody may be interested. Offer them a plan where they can get
equity with time. e.g. 20% after 6 months, 45% after one year of work. To find
the co-founder you need the help from somebody you trust that can help you
evaluate how good is your co-founder. You have already shown that you are
committed to your idea.

Good Luck!

------
abijlani
Being in startup is hard enough but now having to learn coding and fix someone
else's code is not the path you should go down. I think outsourcing to get it
to releasable state is very good option. Your focus should be managing the
product expectations and seeking your next round of funding, not coding. In
addition, think about the fact that your Django developer still owns 35%
equity even after leaving you high and dry. I recommend taking a corporate
attorney's advice on how you can get her to give you back that stake or start
another company.

------
sarosh
A wholly contrarian approach: take everything you have now and open source it.
Consider the test case of MySQL. Odds are, if the underlying technology or
even the approach is interesting, you will certainly find technical help.
While this has certain and definite risks, there may be huge benefits,
especially for a non-technical individual in your position. From the comments
in this thread alone you are likely to get immediate help.

What is the _sustainable_ strategic advantage of your application? Why does
keeping the code closed further that?

Just something to consider...

------
lux
Hopefully you have something in writing that protects your IP rights as well,
or she may be able to run off with the code. Conversely, if you've signed away
ownership though, you may need to buy her shares out to retain 100% ownership.

Short of learning to code, which would be a good idea either way, you could
try something like elance.com to find a qualified developer to get it to beta.
That could even produce a partnership afterwards, although I agree with what
PG said about partners being friends first, for the trust factor.

Good luck, hope you're able to pull through :)

------
jeffrese
Use Odesk there are some talented developers there. Odesk has great management
software for you as well. It's a numbers game, hire 10 ppl, put them all on
the same simple task, by morning you will most likely fore 8 of them. Keep
doing that until you have a large and reliable stable of developers. Oh and
stay away from Indian developers. Sorry if I offend but my real world
experience has shown me time and again Indian developers aren't good. Feel
free to report me to the anti defamation league and the thought police.

------
randomhack
Sorry for your difficult situation.

1\. Outsourcing may not be a good option particularly for work that can be
done by 1-2 developers. Approach a local developer, try and negotiate a
contract where you give equity but not salary.

2\. The runaway developer has 35% equity still? That might be very problematic
in the future.

3\. I do not about Django particularly but learning Python is not tough.
Python is a very easy language to pickup and you should devote some time to
learning the language so that you can at least understand what your fellow dev
is doing.

------
Prrometheus
Your angels might have connections with hackers that would be willing to sign
on to your project, presuming that your previous cofounder relinquished her
equity stake when she left.

------
daveungerer
Giving someone 35% equity at a full salary makes no sense at all. If you can't
find a developer who will take a salary cut for 35% equity, you have serious
problems.

To elaborate: if a developer is earning a full salary plus equity, there is no
opportunity cost to them. Your company will be no different to the developer
from any other contract gig, barring the greater upside potential. The hunger
to succeed will not match yours.

------
ericb
What is the feedback you need to respond to? How much different is what the
app needs to be from what you have. Examples will help us understand better.

~~~
drinko
the non intuitive nature of some of the UI features.

Instructional copy is written, but not implemented.

Lack of help - again written, but not implemented.

Lack of privacy settings.

Inability to search.

~~~
jules
Did you see the application working (partially) or did the developer say that
there's nothing to see yet (because the application isn't finished)?

~~~
drinko
I've seen it, and have it running on my server in alpha.

------
mikkom
I have outsource one project to india, I don't recommend it at all unless you
get a project contract and the company has presence and a project manager
where you live.

If you decide to outsource, be sure to make all the legal work well (nda's,
work contracts) and bind the payment to the delivery of the project.

ps. I too think you were screwed, with that salary and equity it seems that
you are her wallet, not emplyer or at least partner.

~~~
mikkom
Oh and I didn't elaborate why the india is not a good deal, basically the
culture is totally different: They don't tell you if things are not going well
(they keep saying everything is okay while timetables delay and nothing is
delivered) and the quality is not there unless you can keep a close eye on the
code and understand how to check the quality of code.

just my 2 euro cents.

------
melvinram
In the words of Frank from Everyone Loves Raymond, HOLY CRAP!!

Advice 1) Read Getting Real by 37 Signals at
<http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php>

Advice 2) Hire a decent lawyer, and attempt to recover the money you have paid
to this "developer". There is a saying in hindi called "Lato keh bhoot bato
sah nahi manti" meaning... Ghosts who need a kick in the ass don't agree with
words. I think you owe your investors to pursue every route to get the money
back. Talk to your investors. They might be able to help on the legal front.
Yes, it will take swallowing your pride and admitting you f __*ed up by bring
this person into the deal but honesty will take you a long way with good
people.

Advice 3) Decide on the right development plan from here to launch. I'm
assuming you've got a business model that focuses on generating revenue not
eye-balls. If not, quit now!

Your primary options seem to be a) develop yourself b) outsource to offshore
c) outsource to students at nearby university.

From what you've mentioned so far, I wouldn't recommend developing it
yourself. Learning the language is a good idea to know what a good job looks
like.

Outsourcing to offshore is fine if you find a good team. A client of mine has
had some serious problems with his India team. Proceed with caution. You need
to be clear on deliverables and get constant "back-ups" of the code. This way
you can tell if real work is being done... and have an early detection system
of getting screwed.

There are university juniors who may be knowledgable enough to take your code
and run with it. You may pay them or offer a equity share. Students usually
have expenses even if they are low. So expect to cover them. Also, use all
your resources in rewarding them. It's obvious that you are personable and
have interesting friends. Help your developers get connected. So regardless of
whether your startup succeeds or not, your people will have a strong future.

The fourth unlisted option is to find a quality company who has a reputation
for getting shit done and paying them a fair amount to get your product live.
This will take money. And this could come from money recovered from your ex-
partner.

Advice 4) Start selling. Yes, start selling before you have your product. If
you have a purchase order for $10k, your investors will probably match it.
You'll need to get creative.

Most of us, both developers and entrepreneurs, have been screwed at one
point... or will be at some point in the future so I feel your pain.

Just remember: "A diamond is just a hunk of coal made good under pressure." ~
Rod Weckworth

I wish you the best.

~~~
melvinram
One more thing, SHAME CAN BE A HUGE MOTIVATOR.

Find everyone she knows and be so loud that she cannot afford to ignore you. I
don't know the exact legality involved so become friends with a good lawyer.

You have to treat this start up like your baby... and you are mama bear. If
someone tries to kill your baby, you need to rise to the occasion. I almost
never give this type of advice but it's appropriate and needed in your case.

~~~
wehriam
This would discourage other developers from working with the company out of
fear for their own reputation in case something goes wrong.

~~~
melvinram
Not if you tell the truth. "$78,000 & 12 months later, I don't have a working
product."

~~~
mrtron
That doesn't necessarily reflect poorly on the developer.

What if 11.5 months later the entire product changed drastically?

~~~
drinko
it didn't.

------
falsestprophet
You should get rid of the "Django girl" and go back to work so you can fund
the start-up yourself. You should also learn Django.

On that note, I wouldn't mind doing some part-time Django work this summer. I
come a lot cheaper than this girl and frankly it sounds like I'm a lot better.
(purdue.edu walshmj)

Good luck.

------
adammichaelc
I know a 15-year veteran programmer who always builds on-time (I know, that
doesn't sound possible), and on-budget. His name is Rex Parker. His email is
rex at streetsmartinc dot com. He's interested in talking to you.

------
babul
I think when doing a startup where you rely on someone else to do the coding
it is essential your interests are aligned and you both share the vision.
cofounders, not employer/employee like here.

------
jmoller
There is a strong potential market for your application. If you are looking
for help, once you sort out the ownership issues, I would be interested.

------
cmm324
I say learn to hack, find someone you can trust who can hack and give them 50%
ownership in writing, or call it a learning experience.

Chris

------
pcc
drinko -- maybe you could give me a shout, pcc5757 AT gmail.com (just a temp
addr, will pass you the real one once we start talking); can't promise
anything, but _might_ be able to help.

------
jdavid
drinko, have you thought about putting this on Google App Engine? it would cut
your server costs out, and if you are using dJango, that probably means that
you are using python, which Google Apps Runs on.

Google claims that an app engine account is worth about 5 million page hits a
month, which should support 100k users.

------
jasonlbaptiste
is this pownce?

~~~
nostrademons
I didn't think that Kevin Rose was a nurse in Tulsa. ;-)

------
ideas101
i think you should contact PrototypeInvest
(<http://www.prototypeinvest.com/default.aspx>) - they are like VC but instead
of giving you money they will develop your application (against equity) - now
because you have source code it should not take much of a time for them to
develop a prototype for a reasonable amount of equity. This option will save
you time, money and energy. If you decide to try them then write a review
about them over here as more people like you can use them (if they are good).
- GOOD LUCK.

------
benn
Lol sucks to be you hahaha.

~~~
drinko
thanks for the support benn.

~~~
santacruz
Gosh, I cry when I hear such stories... Some pro people can't get any funding
at all.

------
TrevorJ
Next time, use a contract?

