Misses a huge point, if you're doing a startup with friends, typically you're all working for free.
Keep your day job, do some work on the side, retain all rights to your code. Make sure the person or people you're working with are equally dedicated. Have clauses that cut people out for non-delivery on their parts.
A startup is only 25% the code in my experience, it's the most critical part (unless you're selling vaporware) but it's just ahead of sales which then quickly takes over. Unless you're doing the facebook model (which I've never been able to grasp personally).
The company (because there is a legal entity, and not just three guys hacking in a garage, right?) absolutely needs to retain ownership of the code. If the CTO decides he'd rather work for Microsoft 6 months in you can't have a legal structure that allows him to take all the code with him and dump everyone else back to square one.
If you've got two or more people working on a business/startup/project, everything done toward that goal needs to belong to that entity, not the person that created it.
> Misses a huge point, if you're doing a startup with friends, typically you're all working for free.
Working for shares is not "free". It's a gamble (if it busts you get nothing), and if you want to gamble that's your call, but whatever the deal is for your compensation, get it it writing.
I think the original article deals with working under contact for a start up, not as a founder. The context seems to be people with specialised skills who are approached by start ups for specific items of work (graphic design projects), with an expectation of free our cheap labour.
I agree with other commenters that if you are a cofounder, the situation is different. Since you are getting equity in consideration, as soon as it matters to get these legal protections, you must provide a license, and preferably, attribute ownership of the software to the company.
The context seems to be people with specialised skills who are approached by start ups for specific items of work (graphic design projects), with an expectation of free our cheap labour.
What's the potential benefit to the contractor, to do free work for a startup? Is it an actual thing to ask service providers or solo practitioners to work for no cash and no equity?
Keep your day job, do some work on the side, retain all rights to your code. Make sure the person or people you're working with are equally dedicated. Have clauses that cut people out for non-delivery on their parts.
A startup is only 25% the code in my experience, it's the most critical part (unless you're selling vaporware) but it's just ahead of sales which then quickly takes over. Unless you're doing the facebook model (which I've never been able to grasp personally).