My two co-founders kicked me out before creating the company

Wow. What ignorance.

Well, not really.

You should be careful with a technical cofounder, either way.

Heck, you should be careful with ANY additional founder.

Do what I do: put him/her to the test, using a simple test project of 2 weeks.

Problem solved.

It's easy to test a technical founder. But how to test a non-technical guy in two weeks ?

I don't wanna give more details of how it happened, but I don't think they thought I didn't provide valuable work, nor being dishonest. And no, they never proposed a counter plan rather than being kicked out.

Thanks for your answer. But I can't figure out what could happen between you. If they think you are honest and provides valuable work, you pulled your weight, you obtained results (the incubator) and obviously they need a business guy because they are looking for another one... WTF ??? You get laid with both their spouses ? They are jews and discovered you are muslim ? Anything even more ridiculous ?

It's so strange. Why two co-founders would kick out the third one without any reason if they need a guy like him. At least, you know if the reason is professional or personal ?

Hehe. Any of those options, nope :D

One of my leads is that one of them might have been feeling kind of competing with me on who would be leading the company, and that has triggered their reaction. The other one is quite 'follower' so in that sense, I guess he was just following the lead of the other one. And, from their point of view, finding or replacing a business man is easy, the difficult part is the technology.

What options do you think I have to defend my share (if any)?

Ok, now I understand. You appeared as the natural CEO, and one of the tech guys wants to be CEO and did what is necessary to get the job. You should have known this question should be decided very early when creating a startup. But it is the past, and you can't change it.

So it is only a question of power. Who has the big balls/cojones/chutzpah/whatever. Now the answer seems quite clear to me: you have the biggest, and you don't know it yet. Here is why: if the wannabe CEO really had big balls, he wouldn't act like this. Creating the startup without you is not the sign of the badass, it's is the sign of the weakest. And if you knew you are stronger than him, you wouldn't need to post here for advice.

You are strong because you think you could be the CEO. And now you are stronger because they made a big fault. They can't be trusted because they are not honest. And they are easy to manipulate because they proved they are weak. As soon as this affair becomes public, they are done. Knowing the facts, anyone having relationship with them can have only two attitudes: not trusting them, or taking advantage of them. No partnership can be made, and nobody will help them.

Now, you have many choices, depending on your personality and will. You can talk to them and convince them they can't succeed without you (this is certainly true). You may forgive, take the CEO position, and run the company. In this scenario, you can be sure your authority is granted, but they will never be your friends anymore.

If they refuse to talk, you can create the company on your own: they abandoned you in the middle of your project, your idea, but you have nearly everything: business plan, business model, pitch, contact with incubator... you just need a tech co-founder. If the incubator does not know you are aware of their plans, you can simply talk to your contact and tell him your co founders disappeared but you still want to create the company... it may have a stunning effect :)

You can talk about this story to everybody, blog it, tweet it. You are a founder and your tech co-founder gave up and you still want to create your company. You did nothing wrong, so you can play the buzz and hype card. They cheated, so the must stay in the dark. Noise is good for you, bad for them. Their PR policy can be only "no comment".

Last but not least, you have another choice: giving up. After all, if you give up now, you essentially lost half a year. Probably not completely because you learned many interesting things. Whereas fighting against your ex-co-founders will be a real and tough fight. It will be long and results are not guaranteed. It's up to you. You certainly can afford to loose this personal investment if you give up now, and this fight can be won if you really work hard for it. It's a difficult choice.

How to convey the story?

OMG - did I just read you correctly? "They are jews and discovered you are muslim ?" The ignorance (and antisemitism) in this statement is amazing. So if a Jewish person discovers his cofounder is Muslim he'll screw him over? All Jews screw over all Muslims?

OP - aside from the above bon mot he/she dropped, I would ignore this person's advice for 3 reasons:

1) you can't force your co-founders to take you back.

2) making tons of noise just poisons things for your future endeavors.

3) move on and do something new, with a new team you form.

Hi. I'm the guy who wrote the "oh ! shocking !" sentence with the words "jews" and "muslim" put together between two periods.

Did you read the sentence before ? And the sentence after ? Do you know the concept of "context" ? Do you understand humor ? This sentence was an evocation of the most impossible reasons for kicking out a co-founder. If you could think, just one second, such an atrocity could exist in real like and is not pure sense of humor, you have such a bad idea of jewish people some may wonder who is antisemitic.

I also said he could have had sexual relations with all his co-founders' spouses. Apparently it didn't shock you. Maybe this is perfectly acceptable behavior, from your point of view ?

haha that guy, typical politically correct cunt

I know. To be fair, I didn't expect this from two tech co-founders. Lesson learned.

Geeks are super smart...never underestimate nerds!

They are also extremely paranoid. There's always a price with paranoia. Move on, start another company, non tech. Make that super successful.

+1

I am talking to a lawyer now to see how to proceed.

but I agree, I don't wanna partner with them after this.

good point

No. It's not in your favor. It's unfortunately your word against theirs. It's always best to do the paperwork.

Well, if we were selected for the incubator is because I presented in front of them and defended the business model. Bear in mind that they are tech people, so they don't know so much about the business. So...I would discard that I didn't pull my weight.

Incubators put all their faith in tech people. They would rather invest in them to learn business so they can consistently make money off them. Don't forget the tech types in their mind are the gold. The only way they appreciate non tech founders is if they know their "place".

uh oh...CEO's girlfriend didn't like me and I got booted

Two startups with the same product fighting together in lawsuits financed by early revenue. For sure it will be a happy end with lots of success, fame and money... :D

Why not? It happens all the time in both the tech world and in traditional industries --- it's called competition and capitalism.

No, I didn't have access to the code. And well, by their own they could not make it for sure, but they can always look for a new business co-founder (and I have been told that they will do so).

So you also find new tech partners and launch yours, and also share written intent to incubator for going legal.. you'll obviously have enough evidences like emails, messages and fact that you pitched, to prove your involvement.

Since this happened 12 months ago, I am sure you've resolved this one way or another by now. That violence wasn't involved was probably for the best, and you certainly should follow my advice this long after. Just move on. But for future reference, get everything in a contract. Violence is not without consequence, but I take it as self defense in a situation you described.

Be as stupidly clear as possible in a contract. That is the best rule moving forward.