You met someone on the internet. You sent them money. Presumably, you have no contract (at least you didn't mention it). The person who has your money isn't doing what you want. You've realized doing this was amazingly stupid.
Consider the money you've spent and the time you've wasted extra credit for your "how to do business" degree. Seriously, you should know better. If you want to start and build a company stop looking for people to implement your ideas and go find a true collaborator. Find someone you can sit down with over coffee and look in the eye. Find someone that shares your vision and complements your skills. Don't just be the "guy with an idea and money" because those guys get taken by slime balls like this. Be the guy that recruits a team, manages the business, forms the company, drives the team, finds early customers, gets the logo designed for nothing by hustling hard--the guy that does everything else. This guy is useful to coders. IMO, your money and your ideas are worthless to people with good intentions. You have to bring more to the table than that. The good news is "all the other stuff" requires only that you have a brain and work really hard to make things happen.
Don't waste another moment worrying about this. Drop it. Move on. Spend your time and energy on creating something positive and always remember why this happened.
Assholes are everywhere. Starting a business is risky and hard. The ONLY risk you can conceivably reduce (never eliminate) is the interpersonal risk between you and the people you choose to spend your countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears with.
your money and your ideas are worthless to people with good intentions
That's not true. His original idea, the one I discussed with him, was actually very good, specially for someone of his generation (college student.) I can easily see someone like Mark Bao or other Facebook gurus doing something with it.
jiganti, while not a programmer, is actually very in tune with the social web and his peers. I really don't doubt the merit of his ideas, just wish he would find a co-founder, and not an employee.
If you're reading this Zach, go back to campus and find the smart kids and go halves with them. Not freelancers.
Comments
You met someone on the internet. You sent them money. Presumably, you have no contract (at least you didn't mention it). The person who has your money isn't doing what you want. You've realized doing this was amazingly stupid.
Consider the money you've spent and the time you've wasted extra credit for your "how to do business" degree. Seriously, you should know better. If you want to start and build a company stop looking for people to implement your ideas and go find a true collaborator. Find someone you can sit down with over coffee and look in the eye. Find someone that shares your vision and complements your skills. Don't just be the "guy with an idea and money" because those guys get taken by slime balls like this. Be the guy that recruits a team, manages the business, forms the company, drives the team, finds early customers, gets the logo designed for nothing by hustling hard--the guy that does everything else. This guy is useful to coders. IMO, your money and your ideas are worthless to people with good intentions. You have to bring more to the table than that. The good news is "all the other stuff" requires only that you have a brain and work really hard to make things happen.
Don't waste another moment worrying about this. Drop it. Move on. Spend your time and energy on creating something positive and always remember why this happened.
Assholes are everywhere. Starting a business is risky and hard. The ONLY risk you can conceivably reduce (never eliminate) is the interpersonal risk between you and the people you choose to spend your countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears with.
your money and your ideas are worthless to people with good intentions
That's not true. His original idea, the one I discussed with him, was actually very good, specially for someone of his generation (college student.) I can easily see someone like Mark Bao or other Facebook gurus doing something with it.
jiganti, while not a programmer, is actually very in tune with the social web and his peers. I really don't doubt the merit of his ideas, just wish he would find a co-founder, and not an employee.
If you're reading this Zach, go back to campus and find the smart kids and go halves with them. Not freelancers.
He should probably post his identity, though. If for no reason then to make others from making the same mistake.
See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2158590
Thanks for this. I'm young and was fortunate to make some money while young and foolish. This will be a good lesson.
This was the best answer I've ever seen in response to a question on HN. Good advice and well written.