If it turns out we are going in different directions, I think I'm going to have a big head start on him.
Business idea 1 is undoable for him. Business idea 2 will be possible to do for him, as the software is a very much simplified version of business idea 1 with less features.
I already completed nearly all of the software, so I could start much earlier than he does. (He would have to get someone creating the software for him). If he decides not to accept, he probably would also ahve to leave the incubator which would also leave a negative annotation on him. (also if we would be both be selling the same thing)
But I don't think it will come to this and it would also not be in my interest or his.
I haven't done anything from protecting my idea. (no NDA...)
There is definitely market potential, as the current approach is very manual, errorprone and not in time and our solution will save the customer lot's of time (which means money). I would say it's more complicated to sell a car to a customer coming to your store, than selling this.
As for the discrepancy in salaries, I earned twice as much as him when I was working. If I would have started at the same time he has started, I would be able to invest more than twice as much I'm investing now without having less on my bank account now.
This must be worth something.
At first I proposed a 90:10 offer with options to reach 35% but he didn't agree with that. The current plan (to take away his shares if he doesn't meet his goals) doens't differ much from this though.
I earned twice as much as him when I was working and quit my job and didn't earn a salary for 3 months. These 3 months alone are worth more than he is investing. The sum we both invest should be sufficent to get the company running for at least 10 months without any revenues. If it turns out to be a viable idea, we both (or at least I) can invest some more money or seek for an external investor.
I don't think a 50/50 split would be fair, as I already proved that I could do my technical park, and he only joined afterwards and has not yet shown or done his part.
If everything fails, there is still the option of selling the software. At least my former company will be very interested in what I was doing.
That's very interesting.
A friend also had a similar idea. My friend/cofounder would be working as freelance under my company and get a percentange of the revenues he generates (maybe 30%). If a certain goal is met, he would have the option to exchange it to a certain amount of share (exponentially increasing maybe even to 49%).
But that's america I guess. The richer get richer by exploiting the poor. There should be laws on the maximal interest rate!