Seeking Advice: Co-founder Troubles and the Future of Our Medical E-Learning Startup

[finlandia]

Hello

Four months ago, I co-founded bmset.com with a 50/50 partner, G. My focus is on the tech side, while G handles sales, marketing, and database collection.

Operating on an annual subscription model, our platform is currently honing in on a specific niche—catering exclusively to medical students within the department of medicine in our city, totaling around 10,000 individuals. Of these, 8,000 students subscribe at $8, while the remaining 2,000 in residency opt for a $23 subscription. Presently, we've garnered 250 users, including 50 subscribers, with 40 choosing the $24 subscription and 10 opting for the $8 option.

Current Situation:

G has proposed buying my 50% or shutting down the project, opting to refund users and delete the database. This has left me uncertain about the best path forward.

Is selling my 50% a reasonable option given the current challenges?

What's a fair price for my share and the platform, considering our brief history?

Given G's slow pace, should I explore launching independently in other cities?

Platform Stats: We currently have 250 users with 50 subscribers. What role might these stats play in our decision-making?

Handling the Database:

I'm considering managing the database independently using OCR and ChatGPT for explanations. What are your thoughts on this approach?

 

[3john3]

@finlandia Sell yor stake at 50% of 5 years revenue only if u do not sign non compete. Take the money and launch same product.

 

[finlandia]

@3john3 I can launch in other Cities, and I won't have to compete with him, we just starting 4 months ago and we have around 1000 usd from 50 subscriptions but there is a good growth, next year would be around 1000 paid subscription easy,
How can i tell my price at this level
While o can launch in another place and focus on that, that would be better

 

[jusdoo83]

@finlandia

G has proposed buying my 50% or shutting down the project

Why? This is a pretty critical missing detail.

 

[finlandia]

@jusdoo83 We had a trip together something happened and now we don't get along, so the work atmosphere is not good

 

[jillybean736]

@finlandia Won’t lie, this is way more interesting than how to sort your business out.

 

[finlandia]

@jillybean736 Srsly i m looking for answers we didn't agree about finances of the trip !

 

[rcpolk]

@jillybean736

 

[jusdoo83]

@finlandia Interesting. Lots of thoughts. Off the top of my head:

• How strongly do you believe in this idea?
• Do you want to continue with this idea? Whether that's in this city or another one.
• Are you capable of handling the sales, marketing, and database collection aspects on your own (with or without ChatGPT)?
• Is it possible to buy out your partner? You seem to have traction; 50 users is not nothing.
  • If yes: I might suggest 1-2x ARR, with a written agreement not to solicit users or compete within a certain distance (say, 100km) of your city.
  • If no: I'd suggest getting a written agreement that states, among other things, that he acknowledges you will compete in other cities, that he has no problem with that, and that he releases you from all claims arising out of your work on this current project. If you can also get money, great, if not, this clears the path for you to compete.

 

[finlandia]

@jusdoo83 - the idea is good and can generate sales because the pain is there for medical students (I'm a medical student while he owns a library)- yes it's profitable and can scale with the right team, but he is very slow (he only knew traditional real-life business, i iterated the platform like 4 times in this 4 months while he takes ages to modify one question in the database or to make one design in instagram)- my partner thinks that the database is a treasure while even our competitors have it, because he collected it from old exams, and our competitor just did an OCR for the printed copy of our database and launched a painful app,he is already profiting from the printed copy of the database without any share for me, while i can just do OCR and get the database from printed books and launch my product in other cities with the platform that i already built, I can have better team and add one developer, i did some experiments with chat gpt and it generates even better explanation to the questions in the database, so i can move fast and launch in multiple cities at a time, i can handle sales and marketing even better than him, I just don't like doing that.I had my consulting agency before and I generated 50k ARR as a solo doing everything by myself but it doesn't scale because it's not a product that's why i thought about doing this thing, other cities have better market anyways, a lot of ppl there talking about 100k student

 

[jusdoo83]

@finlandia The thing that stands out in your reply is this:

i can handle sales and marketing even better than him [...] I generated 50k ARR as a solo doing everything by myself

It sounds like you don't even need this business partner.

Perhaps the best move for you is to buy him out, or allow him to shut down the current project, and you can start over with a new brand (and the wisdom that the market is validated).

 

[finlandia]

and if can someone help me and published this in startups sub reddit i would thankful as i couldn't do that