Every clause of the BYOC deal, without the jargon.

Consumer apps validate or fail in weeks, not years. A 2-year schedule with a 6-month cliff is short enough to feel real and long enough to protect both sides if things don't work out.

• This is the same model studios have used in gaming (Voodoo, Supercell) and publishing (Penguin, HBO) for decades. The publisher handles distribution; the creator keeps the economics of the work.
• Your rights to the app, its name, its brand, and its revenue are spelled out in one document you sign on day one — the publishing agreement. The App Store listing says "by Startup Lab 24" but the brand on the listing and everything inside the app is your product.
• If I'm ever unable to keep distributing your app — account issues, studio closure, anything — you have the contractual right to get the source code, App Store Connect metadata, user data export, and move the app to your own Apple Developer account within 60 days. This is non-negotiable and lives in the publishing agreement.

I form a formal company (usually a Michigan LLC) when any of these happens:

• Your app generates real revenue — $1,000 total or $500/month sustained.
• You or I are about to sign a serious contract in the company's name (employee, vendor, investor, lease).
• A funding conversation advances far enough to see a term sheet.
• We both decide we want to form one earlier, for any reason.

When the LLC is formed, your vested share converts into proportional ownership units in the new company. Unvested share continues vesting on the same schedule. I pay the filing fees and legal.

• You propose the app name and brand. I only push back if it conflicts with an existing trademark, something in the studio's portfolio, or App Store policy.
• If you leave before the 6-month cliff, the name, brand, and design assets stay with the studio — same logic as the equity vesting. Nothing is fully earned until the cliff.
• After the cliff, your rights to the name and brand begin vesting alongside your equity. At month 24, you hold the full set of rights — subject to the app continuing to live on the studio's developer account per the publishing agreement.
• Any trademark filings are initially in my name and get assigned over to the formal company when it's created. Your protection lives in the publishing agreement and, once the LLC exists, in the ownership units.

• 40+ hrs/week during the 12-week program. This is a real job, not a side project.
• Continuing through the 6-month cliff minimum. Leaving earlier returns your unvested share to the pool.
• You're CEO. You lead product, design, brand, and strategy. I don't override your product decisions; I challenge them and then build what you ask for.
• 12-month exclusivity during the vesting period — you can't be running a competing app or a separate full-time role on the side.
• Weekly 1:1 with me, weekly shipping review, attendance at the group classroom, and a monthly written update on what's moving.
• Hybrid schedule: 2 in-person, 2 remote, Fridays off.

• Missed milestones or repeated no-shows to the classroom and weekly check-ins trigger a formal review.
• Three missed weekly check-ins without prior notice = removal from the program.
• Removal before the 6-month cliff means all equity (yours and mine) returns to the pool, and the app is wound down or rolled back to the studio.
• Removal after the cliff means you keep what you've vested (see §08 good-leaver / bad-leaver).
• I reserve the right to remove any founder for demonstrated lack of commitment. I'm not set up to coach anyone through a personal or emotional crisis — if you're in a rough stretch, this program isn't the right summer.

• iOS engineering on a shared Swift/SwiftUI template. You write specs; we push code using AI tools on top of studio infrastructure; you test; we review and merge. Through launch plus 6 months of post-launch maintenance.
• Design support: access to the studio's design tooling and weekly design reviews.
• All infrastructure — hosting, storage, database, auth, Apple Developer Program, TestFlight — on studio accounts during the program and the first year after launch.
• All legal paperwork: the publishing agreement, IP assignment, founder commitment, and (when it triggers) the LLC operating agreement. I handle drafting in-house.
• Ann Arbor HQ for your in-person days.
• Weekly 1:1 with me, group classroom on shipping and user research, and access to the studio network.
• Ongoing engineering and infrastructure support past the 12 weeks, on the same terms, for as long as the company is active.

Not included: salary, stipend, living allowance, tuition, transportation, food, or any personal financial support. What I cover goes to the app, not to you personally.

• Good leaver (mutual agreement, documented health issue, family emergency): you keep everything you've vested. Unvested goes back to the pool.
• Bad leaver (quitting without cause, repeatedly missing milestones, breach of agreement): the company has the right to buy back your vested shares at the lower of the original cost or fair market value.
• Mutual wind-down: if both of us decide the app isn't working, we trigger a clean wind-down. Both sides keep what's vested. Any shelf concept contributed by the studio returns to the studio. You keep rights to your own work (subject to the 12-month non-compete in the same vertical).

• Selling or merging the company.
• Issuing new ownership to hires, advisors, or investors.
• Raising outside capital above a defined threshold.
• Taking on debt above a defined threshold.
• A big change in direction — pivoting the app away from the original vision or the studio's stack.
• Removing the other party from the cap table or role.
• Transferring or assigning the app's IP.

• If I hand you a concept from the studio's shelf (rare, but it happens), that concept stays licensed to the new company as background IP. If the company closes before the cliff, the concept reverts back to the studio.
• Everything built inside the company — UI, code, brand, trademarks, user base, data — belongs to the company (and later to the LLC).
• Your prior work — portfolio, personal brand, businesses you ran before BYOC — stays yours. Nothing gets transferred in.
• 12-month non-compete post-departure within the same vertical.
• 18-month non-solicit: you won't recruit studio employees, contractors, or other BYOC founders during this window.

• While you're in the program: zero cost to you, zero income from the program. Studio covers all program expenses.
• When the app starts earning: App Store payouts land in the Startup Lab 24 bank account (the account of record for the developer account). I pay out your share of net revenue on a defined cadence (monthly or quarterly), minus direct app-level expenses like App Store commission.
• Before the LLC is formed, your share is paid to you personally as a contractor distribution under the publishing agreement (likely a 1099-NEC at year end). After the LLC is formed, distributions flow through the LLC per the operating agreement (likely a K-1).
• If I cover a specific business cost that benefits your app (domain, App Store fee, user research software, small validation ad spend), that's a capital contribution to the company, not a loan to you.

• Continue: your app has traction, you keep building, I keep providing engineering and infrastructure on the same terms.
• Raise: the app has strong signal. I help you run a pre-seed or seed fundraise. Investor dilution applies proportionally to both of us.
• Wind down: the app isn't working. Clean wind-down. Both sides keep what's vested. You leave with code, materials, and everything you learned.