Ask HN: What to do as founder if your dev is threatening to make project public?

If your entire business is dependant on this person then they are, in a way, your defacto co-founder. But you give them no ownership.

The developer probably would say that you aren't holding up your end of the agreement.

Regardless, you can either come to terms with this person, which probably involves giving them some small degree of ownership or a more fair rate, or try to sue them.

By the way, I assume that you are massively underpaying them in addition to not giving them any ownership. If you were to add up all of the time the system has been in development, how many days is it? Then times 3 hours per day? And divide by the total compensation.

Have you been paying them at least minimum wage?

The lessons:

1. Contracts are only as good as your ability to pay lawyers to enforce them.

2. Relationships are how things get done, not contracts.

3. If you are pointing at the contract, the relationship is broken.

4. Offending people is rarely a way to get what you want.

Good luck.

Or is there something else that you’re not mentioning that he’s getting upset at?

Otherwise maybe you are the problem here?

lawyering up can help but it gets complicated and time consuming if you are in different places.

Do what must be done. If necessary, go public yourself and see whose attention your project gets. Adapt/pivot accordingly.

If he already threatened you, he's about to do it or will do it at some point in the near future, when you lost/invested even more.

Don't waste money you don't have and more importantly, don't waste time and attention.

You fucked up. It's your mistake. Own it, drink it off, adapt.