My technical co-founder left, took our codebase, and launched a competitor. We had no agreement. I have no legal recourse.

🚀 Startup & Businessby stolen_code · 5w ago

▸ What I did

Found a technical co-founder through an indie hackers meetup. I handled product, sales, and marketing. He handled all development. We worked together for 5 months. Verbal agreement about 50/50 equity but nothing in writing. The code lived in his GitHub.

▸ What I expected

Launch together, split the revenue, build the company.

▸ What actually happened

One Friday he messaged me: "I want to take the project in a different direction. I'm going to fork the codebase." By Monday he had a new domain, a new brand, and our entire product under a different name. THREE of our 20 beta users switched to his version.

▸ What I've tried so far

Called him. Texted. He said "the code is mine, I wrote it all." Consulted a lawyer. She said "Without a written agreement, whoever wrote the code generally has a strong claim." I don't have $20,000 for a lawsuit over a product making $0 in revenue.

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2 Replies

lawyer_for_startups · 5w ago✓ the fix

Startup attorney here. This happens more often than you'd think and it's almost always preventable. For anyone reading this: BEFORE writing a single line of code with a co-founder, sign two documents. 1) An IP assignment agreement: all work product created for the project is owned by the COMPANY, not the individual. 2) A co-founder agreement: equity split, vesting schedule, roles, and what happens if someone leaves. These cost $500-1,000 from a startup lawyer or you can get decent templates from Clerky or Stripe Atlas. That $500 would've prevented this entire situation.

indie_hacker_vet · 5w ago

The silver lining nobody wants to hear: he took your code but he didn't take your customers, your market knowledge, or your ability to sell. You already validated the product idea with 20 beta users. You know the market, the positioning, and what customers want. He knows how to code. Guess which one is harder to replace? Start over with a new developer. This time with a contract. You'll be back to where you were in 2-3 months, and you'll have a legal foundation for the real business.

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✗ stuck

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