Sorry to ask but what is it and what does it do? A small paragraph of what Udentity is would be great !! I understand that this is a stealth startup but a screen with two textboxes is too 'cryptic' :)
AFAIK, whatever income you get you are responsible for declaring it. You could either declare it as Misc Income in your return or if this is a continued relationship with the said company, they can issue a 1099 for you as a consultant.
There is plenty of information on the IRS website regarding this.
The points raised are really good pointers for other startup companies and their approach towards fundraising, which let's not kid ourselves is one of (if not the) most important things to do.
I am sure that it is a really good product and has a lot of potential. I can easily see notifo as being one of the little tricks in a developer's bag, a framework that handles all of your notifications while you concentrate on other, more important aspects of your application.
I would agree with maxklein on the approach towards Notifo. Yes it is revolutionary and brand new technology and it did take me quite a bit to understand and comprehend what it does. The understanding was also hindered by the fact that I cannot see what it does, since I do not have an iPhone and the Android application is under development.
The only obstacle is understanding what notifo is and what notifo does. Some people will not get it but the more do, the better it will be for you :)
It is amazing how much information certain people have on the Internet regarding themselves. A simple IP check could have done the trick, provided that it could be cross referenced with orders. So if the individual shopped from home, they know his IP address - then posted a review, and continued posting more reviews... there you go :)
Sometimes reviews are pretty good to let you know what is going on with the particular product/service. It's a hit and miss though in most cases.
A lot of people tend to go to where the hype is. For instance if the money is in real estate, you will see them there. The same with IT. Some people think that they are going to get a lot of money for doing little work in IT and unfortunately in a lot of cases they get away with it.
In one of my interviews for a job, the code I was asked to write was a table in HTML. That shows intent by the company (which is awesome) but also ignorance by the person that was taking the interview. For whatever reason that person was there, getting paid a lot of money and there I was, to report or work with that person (should I accept the job).
Close to the year 2000, there was a survey conducted in London, which revealed that 10% of the IT personnel at the time was supporting the remaining 90%.
Sad but I have seen it and it all stems from managers not having the guts to keep the knowledgeable people and fire the ignorant ones.
The minute your company/application/service depends on something, that something becomes your weakest link.
From the announcement, Skype decided that they will no longer pursue the Extras market. Fine. What was the backup plan for the company? Surely they must have thought of that happening even if it seemed improbable at the time. They 'gambled' with the Extras since there was never a guarantee that that service will continue. Very smart move to reach an audience of 20 million or more but it backfired on them :(
As far as the patent is concerned, they could have researched a bit more regarding their service but then again everyone sues everyone about a weird patent nowadays...
The first thing to do IMO is review ALL the legal documentation that you have. This means:
1. What is your role in the company. Are you just another employee or does your contract 'tie' you in some way with the company's assets and liabilities.
2. Is there anything in the contracts that you signed (if applicable) that relates directly to you personally? If yes concentrate on that one and nothing else.
3. Just because you poured money in the business, it does not necessarily mean that you are responsible for its liabilities. Review the documentation with a lawyer as to what your exposure is towards this situation.
From the looks of it, the merchant account is your 'weakest link'. Follow the advice of others here by talking to the merchant and sorting something out. Chances are that the future is not as bleak as it seems now. There are always choices.
Remember: Ask and you shall receive. Asking the relevant parties for extensions, better terms of payments etc. is not bad. The worst thing that can happen is for them to refuse.
Good luck and stay strong. There is always light at the end of the tunnel!
IMHO DDG's success stems from the fact that yegg listens to the users, is small yet big, and addresses a niche market - the one that demands quality results and settles for nothing less.
By being small DDG can address issues that others will not even think or bother thinking about i.e. enhanced privacy controls, TOR utilization etc.
I believe that Cull was a dream that went south. Unfortunately that dream had a hefty bill ($33m).
Strangely enough I visited that site once before and could not put a name to a site until I saw a screenshot of it.
Indeed this is a how to create a blog kind of article but then again isn't this one of the ways that a lot of startups or ideas begin?
I know a lot of people that started blogging about something they are passionate about, people did follow them and in the end a strong business model was built to move the whole operation to the next level.
Granted there are limitations to what you can do with this example. For instance you can only use it for blogging and sharing of information but there are other tools one might use as csomar points out (see comments).
I think that there are a lot of 'hackers' out there. There are those who have the guts to put everything on the line for something they believe in, put all their savings into a project, borrow from friends and family, raise VC etc. with the dream to achieve something. Some succeed and some fail.
However the vast majority of people out there are might have really awesome ideas but they lack the courage to move that one step forward to make their idea materialize.
If the idea is information sharing based and can be achieved by starting up with a blog, then this article is a really good starting point for a baby startup :)