This is a great starting point. Start by assuming you'll get nothing out of it, then see if you can claw back anything from there.
Giving up this fundamentally, fatally flawed business is step 1. From this fresh point of view, you might be able to come up with a relative win-win. Maybe your so-called cofounder can purchase the code from you instead of wasting many months getting it rewritten again. That would be better than walking away empty-handed.
That said, I propose a fundamentally different target for the "clawing back".
You said this is a close friend. Fuck money. Fuck the business. Save the friendship. In your position I would assume the business is lost and do whatever it takes to salvage the friendship. Get another friend to mediate. Come to an understanding. Accept that you've both got your fixed, blinkered view of things, and you're not going to agree about it, probably ever, but you can still get back to being friends despite that.
Close friends are far more valuable than any business. I was lucky to keep my best friend when my first business blew up. I am really glad I made the effort, as hopeless as it seemed at the time.
> I've often felt bullied and mistreated by this person, who treats me like a "resource" and bosses me around like a child.
> My attempts at discussing/negotiating this with my co-founder only stir hostile, belittling responses from him.
I wonder if there is much "friendship" left now.
However, you should take a break for a few days/weeks so that both parties can cool down, and then try to talk to him again. Hopefully you guys will be able to patch up things and launch the site.
I wouldn't call somebody a close friend if he planned to sue me, take the share that was rightfully mine (unless his work deserved 60%, maybe not in code, but in deals, connections and marketing), and insult me around. That person wouldn't deserve my friendship.
People do stupid things over money or careers. Friends sometimes screw each other over. Shit happens. If the worst thing you do in your life is to demand 60% when you're really entitled to 50% (or even 40%), you've done OK.
Giving up this fundamentally, fatally flawed business is step 1. From this fresh point of view, you might be able to come up with a relative win-win. Maybe your so-called cofounder can purchase the code from you instead of wasting many months getting it rewritten again. That would be better than walking away empty-handed.
That said, I propose a fundamentally different target for the "clawing back".
You said this is a close friend. Fuck money. Fuck the business. Save the friendship. In your position I would assume the business is lost and do whatever it takes to salvage the friendship. Get another friend to mediate. Come to an understanding. Accept that you've both got your fixed, blinkered view of things, and you're not going to agree about it, probably ever, but you can still get back to being friends despite that.
Close friends are far more valuable than any business. I was lucky to keep my best friend when my first business blew up. I am really glad I made the effort, as hopeless as it seemed at the time.