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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.



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.


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.




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