I started a hardware project a year ago, and as I presented the idea to some people I quickly realized that this has the potential to become a proper business.
I gathered a founding team of four people that appeared to have experience in the fields that I couldn’t cover. In the beginning, everything looked very good and the motivation of everybody was very high.
One year later, we are at least half a year behind the initial schedule and it appears that getting into business requires more effort than expected. Motivation amongst my co-founders moved towards zero and I am the only one still working my ass off.
We now have a chance to receive serious funding and suddenly all my co-founders are back with the motivation to get some money.
In retrospect, I was the only one really working for this startup while everybody else was waiting for me to start generating some money for them. It also seems that I overestimated their experience and they have little to no real expertise in their respective field.
We never signed any contracts (I know, big mistake) but we have some oral agreements. I want to get rid of them but have no idea how this works. Can I just tell them that they are not part of the founding team anymore? Furthermore, I need some new co-founders. How did you guys know that your co-founder was the right person?