College engineering student and RA

>college engineering student and RA
>guy on my RA staff is an economics student
>has idea about phone app, but isn't a technical guy so can't make it himself
>say I'll do it and we can split 50/50
>much more work than expected especially since I haven't done this before
>sacrificed every weekend the last 6 weeks working on it
>to complete both android and iOS I would have to sacrifice my winter break and all my weekends next semester too
>he's also working on building his real estate career
>when we talk about getting money through kickstarter and investors, he says we could keep some for ourselves, then I say no we should put it all into the business and he plays it off like he was joking when he really wasn't
>he suggested we have a subscription and offer a free month, then send an email to the users in the middle of the night while they're sleeping that their free trial is over so they don't notice us kicking them into the payed subscription, again drops the idea when I say we shouldn't do that
>hasn't come up with any creative ideas, only parrots what he reads online and takes ideas from other apps
>seems like he's trying to stroke my ego by saying "I told my family this doesn't happen without you" and when I meet his girlfriend she talks about "how much she's heard about me"

I'm not gonna do all the heavy lifting while he works on his real estate stuff and goes out with his girlfriend. I would just be letting myself be taken advantage of if I sacrifice my winter break to work on this while he chills. If he were an experienced business man then he might be more useful but he's just a student who hasn't done anything so I can't use the excuse "he will handle the business side".
If he's willing to take advantage of customers then he would be willing to take advantage of me. I dont know him well enough to really know. My gut tells me not to trust him. How do I break it to him? We're still gonna be on the same staff next semester which will be awkward

Good thing I never told my family or friends about this so I don't have any explaining to do. But he's told everyone he knows that he's working on this. Oops

I didn't tell anyone because I knew they would question why he's needed if I'm making the app. But they would have been right

OP one word

cuck

>if you want to stop
"I don't feel like I have enough time to commit to the project anymore. I'm going to have to drop it."

>if you want more money
"I've been doing [work you've done] for this project, and you've done [work he's done] for the project, so I feel like I deserve more ownership. I want ___% of it."

There is no situation where you are guaranteed to get everything you want, OP. If you ask for more he might say no and then you will be kicked off it/will have to continue to work on it for the current rate/will have to leave yourself.

Whatever happens, if you want things to change you have to actually do something to cause them to change, otherwise inertia will continue them as they are. Just talk to him.

I'll talk to him.
The reason why I decided to do it in the first place is because I thought it would be a good learning experience, not necessarily because I assumed it would work. So I don't feel like I would be missing out on a huge opportunity.

Was it an actual contract or
>yo we can split the profit huehueaeuh
?

I didn't push that yet since I wasn't certain where this was leading or if I was going to stay. I didn't want to have signed anything in that case, so it looks like that was a good idea.

Great, then never see him again.
/thread

Mentioning complaints or doubt to a guy like that will backfire, but if it is not an actual contract you have the upper hand. State the reasons you told us, and then say you want x% amount or you are walking. You have the ability to do so right since you aren't contracted, but be careful because this is the kind of guy who sues. Whether you take your work with you, and he sues as stolen property that you guys both came up with together or whether you give him your work to appease him if he doesn't agree to your terms and he sues you later when you are working on another slightly unrelated idea and claims that one, too. Walk. Very. Carefully. Build your case now (i.e.evidence trail), and state your requirements to him. Walk away if he is not as invested in this as you.

Do you think you can reach him as a person first? If not, don't even try and just protect yourself.

Gotcha. Just saying that if you WANTED to keep working on the idea, don't go to the guy and beg for a higher percentage, make your own app and own 100%. You got the right idea OP, at least you have some sense not to embezzle money from investors.

Are you stupid or trolling? You wasted all that time to "just move on?" Just secretly launch it without him knowing, claim someone beat us to it.

I learned how to code for an app, it wasn't a waste of time. And I've been putting the skills I've learned on my resume when applying for internships

Where is your spine op ?
You aren't a doormat, in the app business this happens all the time. Coders are replaceable with pajeet and usually in personal project get screwed since they adapt the concept to defining features of The app.
I've been in a similar boat, and by God I wish I had gutted the prick and walked with the idea [that was practically mine to start with, then filled with modifications ]
He only went on to make mid 5 figures with the app, but wasn't able to bring my concept to life ... Waste of an opportunity

why didn't you take the idea?

It was my first time at the rodeo, I had a lot on as well with a family illness . So o just let it slide all too easily

I'm assuming you came up with the original idea. Would you regret it if he had come up with the idea?

OP you sound a lot like me during my first year at uni. A bizniz major at the gym came up to me and convinced me to work on a dating app with him, offered me 5% of equity and some cash. I was beta as fuck so I did a lot of it but the dude was totally retarded and I was putting in way too many hours than it was worth so I bailed. Just bail, and next time if you want to work on something find another technical person to work on it with. I guarantee you that most business majors are going to be totally useless. You have to find someone who you respect to work with.

He didn't go in to do anything?

Is the idea good? And marketing? What has he done on that front? He should have atleast bought a domain, set up a landing page, validate the idea, reaching out to people etc..... Is he doing anything at all? I'm an aspiring non-tech founder (I'm designing mockups atm) and I want to do everything I can to not be the guy OP is describing

he made a gofundme, and emailed a professor in our entrepreneur department for advice. We had a meeting with the professor which was pretty useful

Other than that he's just done research online

If I were you, I would demand more from him. "Research" is vague, sounds like he's doing the bare minimum. But if you're gonna quit anyway, what does it matter

I'm just gonna quit, I have too many other things in my life to worry about

Zuckerberg him.

Literally anyone can do that shit. But if you let him do it, you'll be letting him make retarded decisions. You're smarter than this guy so why not do the paper-moving-around-ing yourself? If it is too much work for you and you don't have enough time, hire a pajeet to do the programming, pay him a low wage without equity. This is how you should be thinking about business, OP.

wouldn't you feel guilty just ripping this guys idea?

Ideas re worth literally nothing. There has never, in all of history, been a respectable inventor who couldn't design or build the product he envisions. Apps are the same; if you can't make it then it's not yours.

What about those twins that sued facebook? I don't believe Zuckerberg actually stole any code from them.

Ripping off someone's idea is impossible to do. An idea does not contain enough information to become a susseful business. Many, many people had the "idea" to make an online payment system, but only PayPal had the the viral growth mechanism and a fee system that allowed buyers and small sellers to avoid fees while still being profitable. If someone say "online payment system" you don't hop out of your chair and say "hahaha now I have all I need for massive riches". It takes more than that. The idea is worth nothing. You can go "rip off" the idea for Target or McDonalds or anything but it won't make you instantly rich.

There is no such thing as ideas. Someone has a plan for execution. You are not stealing the idea from him, because I garantee millions of people have thought of the idea before. There is no possibility this is an original idea, there is no such thing as original ideas. I blame movies like "Evny" for convincing people ideas are the secret sauce of business. Many, many people have thought of the idea before, so why would you feel bad for "stealing" it? Everyone who does the idea will execute in a different way, you are executing your way.

Zuck got sued because he was mascarading as employee for their company. If Zuck just said, "your website fucking sucks and I don't want to work with you, I'm making my own website." then the twins would have said "you're on, bitch" and they couldn't sue anymore than they could sue match.com.

Ideas are worth little to nothing, execution is everything.

You're probably downplaying his roll like a brat but there's nothing in writing (hopefully) that says you have to work for him or he owns something of yours.

Do whatever you want, fuck him and his family and his girlfriend. Who fucking cares man.

Even thought the idea doesn't make anything happen, I still wouldn't want to run with it. I'd rather just come up with my own idea or not do anything. I wouldn't want someone to take my idea and do it, even if they were allowed to so I shouldn't do it to someone else

Posting because I'm in a similar situation. Made the entirety of an app all by myself, with design work done by a third party. Some networking has been done by the 'partner' and he has paid for said design work. Now he's throwing ultimatums at me. "Don't over value your position within this venture" he says. I have literally built the entire thing in my spare time and he has done nothing but some sincerely bad repping.

It's now on the verge of launch and I want to lynch this guy big time. What are the chances he'll chase legal action?

Do you have a contract?