Oh this is a long question to answer, but let me start with my experience. I'm the "outsourced COO" for a number of small businesses who have grown through their bootstrapping phase, proven they have a market and all of sudden start feeling the pressure of the business expanding. 9 times out of 1...
first, please put a bit more effort into your question, it's barely comprehensible. regarding your employee: talk to him, find out what level of ownership and what risk profile tickles his fancy. leave room for increases in the future. open communication + transparency --> make sure everyone's on...
So the question is what are your "Plan B" options. Let's assume for a sake of argument you've weighed the options (build your own, buy from an established competitor, partner with this startup) and you've decided that partnering is the best option. One way you could protect yourself in the event ...
I've gone down similar paths in the past. Here are your options: 1) Provisional Patent. if an implementation of their system to his new market would be patentable (i.e. using machine X to make donuts instead of jewelry), then you could file a provisional patent on the idea. Provisional patents a...