I (17M) had this idea for a project (vague in the name of privacy) which I wanted to work on for this competition. My science teacher told me to include a classmate (let’s call him "Joe", also 17M) in the project because she thought he could help me. I built the idea in a month, it was a lot of hard work and I felt very personally connected to it. At the beginning we talked about working together, but in reality I did all the coding, testing, and writing. He showed up but didn’t contribute anything substantial at all. When we joined the competition, we won a couple thousand euros prize money, it was split 50/50 because we were both registered and I felt really frustrated. I complained to some friends, who all said I had a right to be frustrated, but I shouldn’t do anything about it. Basically, I wasn’t happy about it, but I didn’t make a scene.
During that time, I wanted to keep working on the project, but was fed up with "Joe" for not doing anything at all (truthfully nothing, this isn’t an exaggeration). I sent "Joe" a message asking him if he wanted to keep working on the project. Now, I purposely hinted strongly that it would be a lot of work, and made it seem like a unfavorable idea by saying things along the line of "there is no guarantee we make money from it", and "we would need to contribute many hours a week" to try get him to leave. Naturally, he replied that he’d rather focus on school and didn’t want the workload.
Over the next couple weeks, I redid large parts of the project, and improved it a lot. A company that we’d reached out to earlier that year took notice, and offered to buy the MVP and idea, and let me keep working on it. I received a decent payout. Nothing insane, but big for someone my age, which I saved. This was super exciting for me, I told all my friends and family about it.
When "Joe" found out, the guy got realy mad. He said I cut him out and that the original idea was “ours.” He claims I should have at least offered him a percentage since we reached out to the company about the project when it still had both our names on it or something.
I told him I gave him the opportunity to stay involved. He declined. I said I did 100% of the additional work, and spent hours of my time and a lot of my money on it (to make this post as truthful as possible, I exaggerated that point)
I also feel I should add, "Joe" isn’t very popular in my school, and tends to get made fun of. When we originally won that couple thousand euro, people in my school were giving him a hard time about freeloading, which I may have indirectly caused. I was complaining to friends about the two way split and it led to him getting outcast ever further. Now, when I sold the idea myself, people are saying that I’m selfish and, for lack of a better word, an ‘asshole’.
TLDR: AITA for ‘kicking’ my partner out before selling the project?
NTA, it doesn’t seem like he did anything to deserve the money, or credit!
Yes but the fact he got the money and got credited 50% for it could backfire on OP badly. Yes the guy said he didn’t want to work on it any more, but if the idea suddenly makes a lot of money, unfortunately there is now a history of this bad partner being half the owner of it. It’s a tricky situation.
Info: did you take his credits out before or after you accepted the deal?
NTA Why would your friends that agreed with you, now say that you’re an asshole. Plus dude, had a lot of nerve expecting another cut of the money. Next time, quit being passive aggressive and speak up to the teachers. Instead of complaining behind his back. Then you wouldn’t have, had to split the money in the first place.
Er
Sounds like intellectual property was yours.
Your science teacher got Joe involved. Joe did 0 work.
Make sure there is document of this. ..
NTA…and Joe was freeloading.
OP is NTA but that science teacher is a stinker, saddling them with a worthless partner
NTA. He wasn’t much of a partner in the first place, although you also said he contributed ‘nothing substantial’ – this implies he contributed something (even if it was tiny) – so it really depends on what this was and if it was a foundational idea or just some peripheral suggestions. You keep all your notes, and original code etc.
Make sure you keep the documentation around him having the opportunity to stay, and his declining of that. Documentation that proves he declined to continue working on this project will always beat ‘he says/he says’.
Yeah, I had a 3,000 character limit, so I couldn’t elaborate. He was there during the competition to help me pitch the project, but apart from the script I made him remember, he couldn’t contribute. He didn’t answer questions or progress the project in any other way. I have text message history to prove these things, but I doubt he’d do much about it except complain to our classmates, he doesn’t know how much I made.
Sounds like your former partner is learning the ropes of becoming a future CEO. Bum off the expertise of others. Good for you for all that hard work. You might consult with a patent lawyer to get some answers and guidance. You don’t want to drag this guy into your life. Get it cut off legally.
NTA if he truly didn’t do any of the work.
ESH here
You’re NTA for selling the work you did and keeping the money. But I think if Joe was not working on the team project then you should have brought the up with professor and Joe and addressed it during the project. Letting it go on and then further trashing the reputation of a kid who’s already an outcast seems cruel and immature, it’s possible Joe wanted to help more but had confidence issues or didn’t know how to do more without getting in your way.
Joe obviously should have tried harder but given the social dynamics I am reading into this and the fact that you wrote it, I think you getting him labelled a freeloader keeps this out of NTA territory
“He showed up but didn’t contribute anything substantial at all”
So based on believing the OP he showed up when they were working on it and contributed something to the project.
So he has sweat equity AND the OP acknowledges his ownership splitting the prize money.
And that’s with believing the OP on the lack of contributions.
NTA but your partner may have decent grounds for a lawsuit.
NTA
If you were to be paid proportionally to hours worked it seems that the other the guy was overpaid.