This is Hackathon Harassment
Really not trying to be a stick in the mud, and Mark does give me a little pause. However, there were only two people on this team, right? Which leads me to the conclusion that you were the PM (as you specifically say you&#x27;re the project leader) and Mark was the engineer? I don&#x27;t go to too many hackathons, but if it&#x27;s you two only, that makes me think 50&#x2F;50 split. I understand if you&#x27;re parting ways, sure, but this seems like a legitimate complaint from a 50&#x2F;50 split team:<p>&quot;While I understand the original idea was yours, I need you to understand that the prize we won together. […] That exhibition booth […] is as much mine as it is yours.&quot;<p>And of course either of you can choose to leave the team unilaterally, but on a 50&#x2F;50 team, it seems odd that one person can &quot;fire&quot; the other person and take all the benefits (minus one ticket) that the team won together. If we formed a 50&#x2F;50 team, and a VC gave us a bunch of funding, and I told you I was firing you and giving you some of the VC money, you would be pretty miffed.<p>If there&#x27;s a booth to demonstrate things, then your statement here seems odd:<p>&quot;The tickets being offered were exactly what he would have gotten as a team member..&quot;<p>because there&#x27;s more to the benefits of winning than a ticket to a conference or whatever. Additionally, you paint his email as harassment, but I really don&#x27;t see it:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn-images-1.medium.com&#x2F;max&#x2F;2000&#x2F;1*DQAH9nLoO8yC4rwtK61hgQ.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdn-images-1.medium.com&#x2F;max&#x2F;2000&#x2F;1*DQAH9nLoO8yC4rwtK...</a><p>I won&#x27;t continue from there as hopefully you get the idea. And I&#x27;m not blaming you, but it really does not seem like harassment, despite the narrative you&#x27;re painting. It makes me think you have some angle here, but someone shouldn&#x27;t be &quot;fired&quot; and told to leave a project that they had a 50&#x2F;50 stake in because you thought they were a little gruff.