Yes it is the founder and his buddy of many years. For many months now I've had that feeling that things are "not right". I've recently found out that he's one of those guys that will say anything to get the outcome he desires.
In good faith I continued to work. This was after I was lied to and screamed at. This was in hopes that they would turn around and be more agreeable. Clearly not the right thing to do. It's not greed, it's about getting what I was promised. You're right though about one thing ... paranoia breeds more paranoia. I've been nothing but forthcoming and honest.
all my lawyer did back in the day was structure equity for Internet companies. He worked for one of the top firms. Trust me this guy is an ace in the hole. He like me is worried these guys have lied before and are doing it once again.
Were not asking for anything outrageous, we just want to know what is In the stock agreement. When you're told sign here and well tell you by those that have lied multiple times, that is the problem
I am actively engaged with a lawyer who knows about equity deals. He and I agree and our position is to find out what's in the stock agreement without signing anything first. I just keep getting the runaround which is "oh you have to sign this nda / contract first and then you get your stock agreement". As my lawyer says "I'm gonna call bullshit on that".
I have threatened this several times to which the founder freaked out and begged me not to stop. It's at a critical point. I believe mostly they are just trying to intimidate me. It's now come to a point where I absolutely can't trust them and I'm going to stop providing code until I get what I want. I believe you're right, when I threaten to stop things will happen rather quickly in my favor.
They have filed a provisional patent and this is an interesting point. Again however I've not been paid ever for anything. Never at any point have I declared that I would relinquish ownership of the code. The recent one sided contract they gave me had these terms in there. I obviously didn't sign that.
No I've not been paid for anything. My lawyer at one point mentioned that if I was they could use that to say "oh we've paid him, that's what we agreed to as compensation". So I believe you're correct in this aspect. I"ll ask my lawyer again.
You're right it is very stressful and difficult. I've thought of walking away many times since in my opinion dealing with dishonest people is not worth it. I haven't signed anything ever with them. It's all been on good faith. I've been doing work on their servers and checking it into their repository I'm not sure what that means. Up here in the north east where there isn't a large pool of investors / firms like silicon valley I feel pressure to comply so this investor doesn't vanish.