I think programmers here are assuming "execution" means coding. It really means sales, pitching, customer development. Also product development - refining the features over time. Billy will screw that up for sure.

Can he? He incorporated 18 months before Startup Weekend, and had literally nothing to show for that time, except a business plan. Evidence strongly indicates he could not (easily) "get somebody else to rebuild it". Which is why he came to Startup Weekend and defrauded 8 developers out of their time and skill. He clearly couldn't (or wouldn't) pay market rates to get it done, or he would have done so in the 18 months preceding this.

If Billy gets their code, then they compete against Billy using his client list, his price lists, etc. because those were exposed during the weekend.*

And, it's not like Billy has super exclusive access to the restaurant business. They could partner with other restaurant owners in the region who are similarly turned off by people like Billy. I'm sure those people exist, given the homophobic and generally condescending comments on display here...

So, Billy has: a code base he cannot easily iterate on because he's fucked over his entire potential employee base.

Developers have:

* A lot of Billy's biz dev work over the past 8 months.

* The freedom to exploit personality conflicts in the local/regional business scene to score additional business partners.

* Far lower costs. There are probably tons of bugs in a weekend code sprint product, and Billy isn't going to find any free labor to clean those up. Remember a big chunk of software dev is extending and debugging existing code... Billy ain't going nowhere with a static code base.

* Worst case, the "fuck you" factor and access to free skilled labor (their own) necessary to make break-even or even loss leader pricing structures. This is a unique advantage in their negotiations with Billy.

The last two together would totally screw over Billy. Imagine these developers going into a meeting and demonstrating security flaws or bad GUI glitches in Billy's product during a live meeting... the client might not go with these guys, but in the VERY BEST case for Billy, he's got to hire a freelance developer to clean up the code base. Not going to be able to exploit a hackathon for that sort of stuff, and 80% of software developer is maintenance...

* Maybe Billy claims they only get access to his work done that weekend. But that's bullshit; they developers didn't teach themselves to create rather specific types of products in a weekend... to the extent that there's any contract there, if it came out during the weekend, then it counts toward the agreement.

Billy could block the other 8 partners from using the code written at that weekend. But they don't need it. They would just need another weekend. Conversely, any one of the other 8 partners could block him from using it. He would still need a cooperative coder.

Billy might be able to make the argument that if he used the code, and no one specifically objected, it was implicit consent from the other partners. Any one of the 8 should be able to send him a cease and desist letter, and he would be stuck.

In situations like this it's very clear that whatever you make, you own.

Absolutely false: http://startupweekend.org/about/firsttimer/ "Startup Weekend doesn’t support or take part in the signing of any legal documents"

Startup Weekend would be a lot better if it required all participants to sign waivers releasing all IP generated over the weekend. That way everyone knows exactly what they are getting into.

If you really think a weekend of coding is worth something then why would you go now? It allows complete strangers to join your team and pollute the IP ownership.

10 percent of the effort is worth 10 percent of the equity, no matter how few days that effort is provided.

>> If you really think a weekend of coding is worth something then why would you go now? It allows complete strangers to join your team and pollute the IP ownership.

Strangers yes. But they self selected into groups.

At the end of the weekend, the code is owned by someone. If there's someone interested in it, the author should be as well.

I would agree that one should not have high expectations going to such and event, but one should expect not to be exploited, and if something does emerge that has legs one should be entitled to his share - and if fact (s)he is entitled to it by law unless someone cons them out of it. Copyright goes to the author.

And just to clarify - if everyone on your team signed away their rights then you would still be free to take your code and do whatever you want with it. You could build the business on your own if you didn't like any of the other teammates.

An actual partnership would probably have contracts and articles that make it easier to do business. Notably, many allow for ratification of business decisions by majority vote of the partners, weighted by their ownership share. There may be a conflict of interest if you try to make your partnership buy something you already own individually, but as long as you disclose your interests up front and recuse yourself appropriately from conflict decisions, that's rarely an issue.

That's shitty for Billy; he just signed away 18 MONTHS of business development for a 0.4% stake. Or else he doesn't get access to the code. The sure thing is that he doesn't get it both ways...