OpenWebU

I had several would-be technical co-founders. They ended up quitting after putting in only a month - 3 months of work in exchange for equity. In most cases, they delivered some but not all that they promised. The agreements were done on a handshake.

I worked on the project for 10 months full time and am bringing the product to the finishing line. And, I invested in all of the business expenses, including hiring contractors overseas to complete the work.

So, my question: how do I give equity compensation to the tech folks who worked for sweat equity that is fair?

I don't think they are any longer founders so out of what pool of stock would I compensate them when I incorporate?

Any rules of thumb would be appreciated. I'm also looking into equity consultants so any referrals would be great. Thanks.

I've been using Godaddy, and their performance is slow. Even their home page takes 3 minutes to appear when Google is at 2 seconds.

(By watching his video blogs, it appears that the CEO has been putting more effort in figuring out whether the new Godaddy girl should be Eliot Spitzer's former hooker or Danica Patrick.)

Does anyone have other apps hosting companies to recommend for bootstrappers?

I did enterprise software in my past life, and am curious about what you need to do to get ready for public beta of a consumer website. OK - there's the obvious - have some alpha testers - make sure the code is working. But, I'm curious about what kind of support resources are needed, hints/tips from past experience...

Here's the situation: I have an extra room at my home. A developer I have been working with overseas is now excited about the idea, and is willing to fly here and live in the extra room to accelerate the project. We're doing ok in our current working relationship - he's consulting to pay his bills -- my stuff is 2nd or 3rd priority -- things are getting done but slowly. He knows about my boyfriend, and my boyfriend knows him. So, here's the question: is living with cofounders a good idea or not? One friend says, do it - it would accelerate the project. Another friend says don't - it would make things personal and make it difficult to make business decisions. I'd like to hear about others'opinions on this - thanks.

i'm using godaddy email and it is -- well -- horrible. i was thinking of going to gmail because i really like the search and tagging functionality, and speed. (btw, i left yahoo mail -- way too slow). but, on techcrunch today, people really downed gmail. does anyone have suggestions for a useful alternative?