caribguy - 4:15 am on May 25, 2009 (gmt 0)

Don't walk away from this, run!

Agree with gpilling, cut your losses and find yourself another venture. Your "partners" are showing their greed before the business has even had a chance to start operating... If you can not trust the people you work with to recognize your value now, the situation will only going to get worse in the future when money (hopefully) is coming in.

Let this be a lesson learned for the next time: agree in writing (even if just by keeping minutes of your meetings) what each partner's stake in the business will be, what each person's responsibilities are and contributions (money, time), and most importantly: how dividends (if any) will be paid out.

Don't forget that each of you should receive compensation (salary) for any work done or time spent on operating the business - even if only on paper. You can agree to defer it or to each put in a set amount of time in return for shares in the company... That way, you can put a value on each member, shareholder, partner, whatever's input and prevent the issues you're having now. All of this should happen long before you formalize your business by opening bank accounts, getting a TIN number for the company, etc.

If you haven't changed the domain registration, then the most straightforward win-win situation is that the two others pay you an amount of money that makes you feel comfortable with forfeiting a business opportunity that was yours only (selling the product online). In case you already did, you probably did so with the expectation of benefiting from it. Again, you are being forced to walk away form the deal and it seems only fair that you get something in return.

Explain to your "friends" that it will be in everybody's best interest if they continue their venture without you and that you want to achieve a situation that everybody can live with. Since you were not asked to register it for the company's benefit and you had the intention to develop it as a separate venture, I would think that the domain belongs to you only.

If they want you to work as an employee or contractor, they should expect to pay a fair hourly rate for your skills. If none of you thinks there will be a conflict of interest you could still do this. However, if I were in your shoes I would not be open to such a deal...

Sorry for the length of this post :) Good luck with it and let us know how things develop!