

Ask HN: My cofounder disappeared.  What should I do? - LostMyCofounder

About six months ago I was contacted by a HN member who had a decent startup idea, good design skills, but no programming skills. We decided to work together to create a dating website that focused around the concept of posting a date idea, then seeing who might want to join you for that date. In this way the site matches people based on what they want to do, not who they are.<p>To make a long story shorter, the idea grew and morphed, as we went through design revisions and code refactoring. The original idea of the dating site was broadened into a more general event broadcasting site, like Twitter but specifically for parties, concerts, and other events. I also came up with a few other ideas (they key ones that make the web app stand out) that I won't give away.<p>But now my cofounder appears to have disappeared. We communicated by email and chat, and all I know of his physical location was that he lived in the Middle East. I haven't heard from him in long enough that it seems likely that he had an accident or some other unfortunate circumstance.<p>So I'm left wondering what I should do. Should I try to replace him? Might there be legal issues if I do so? We never wrote up a serious contract, just an informal email in which we decided in favor of a 49%/51% division, with me holding 51%.<p>In the absence of my cofounder I have completely changed the design, and have reworked the site's entire focus. At this point there is literally no relation to the original idea of the dating site.<p>Without giving away all the details that make my startup idea special, the web app is now focused on bands and their fans, allowing bands to broadcast news and gig schedules, and allowing fans to follow bands and broadcast which gigs/concerts they will attend.<p>There is really nothing left of the disappearing cofounder's original idea, and all that is left of his original design is the logo.<p>So to summarize the situation I am in: I have a great startup idea (All ingredients of which are mine, but could possibly be considered derivative of the idea of a disappeared cofounder).<p>What I need is a cofounder who can help with some design issues, put together a new logo, and who also has good marketing skills. Programming skills would be an added bonus. Primarily what I need is a designer and marketer.<p>This is an ask HN post so here are my questions:<p>Is there anything I should do about the original disappearing cofounder?
Could there be legal issues with replacing the cofounder even though I have changed the startup's basic principles completely and never had a serious contract with the cofounder?
If you have applicable skills, would you like to be my new cofounder, or do you know someone who might?
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davidw
So you were starting a business with someone, and you don't even have an
address or phone number for them?

Sounds like you should just move on, and set aside some money for lawyers in
case your company does well.

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LostMyCofounder
_So you were starting a business with someone, and you don't even have an
address or phone number for them?_

That's right. In retrospect it definitely seems like a bad idea, but at the
time I didn't think of it. I'm most interested in the coding side of things,
and didn't think so much of the business aspects.

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dnautics
A pity, the date-based dating idea sounded really awesome.

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LostMyCofounder
It is very hard to get started with a dating site, since you need a large user
base if you want members to be able to find people that they will be
compatible with.

Dating is much easier to build onto a site which already has a user base.

