Investing money and time in servers - how to make sure I don't get ripped off?

[makvo]

Hi! I have been hosting servers small and large, private and public since Minecraft original release (played before that in beta, of course, but that's when I became active host)

My current iteration of MC community (network which has 95% focus on our locally famous Survival) in today ages gets lucky to hit 20 players on peak, which is a shadow of our 300 player count daily when we were up against the biggest youtube in our wide region year ago.

To get to the point of this thread, I feel tired of trying to further grow my server back again as a primary and only owner (the next in hierarchy of my server is literally a low ranking moderator and then helper team handing out mutes)

The plan I am considering involves spending money, my existing dedicated server (if requested) and administration/community building personal time to contribute to the existing "established" server. Established can literally mean same size as me, as long as I get equal rights in return.. I also had this new community re-launch planned, very very professional custom illustrated logo made by my professional designer buddy for free, domain purchased, basic theme site built up, discord nearly ready to go, yet I got too tired to do real work of making sure lots of players join up and stay.

Again, this is feedback / assistance section so I expect just that, I want tips and tricks on how to make sure I get a fair offer in return of my monthly budget assistance I am willing to give to simply get an important say in a medium sized community.. getting money back is not even a requirement unless that means someone else will keep the profits that we did made. If I do end up as a full righted co-owner (2 owners situation for example) how do I make sure things don't fall apart when we disagree on minor crap? If it does, how do I make sure guy doesn't run off with all the assets while I keep nothing from my investment? I am always vary of equal-power situations so I am trying to get other peoples experience in this.

Not to make this thread more of a text-wall.. let me just press "post" now then, if I missed any important details make sure to ask!

 

[propyl]

Word for word exactly the same thing I'm dealing with; but I have nowhere near the same amount of experience that you have man.
Just now coming into server owning from other business ventures the only thing I can say is that you gotta do it yourself, throw money at the problem till it goes away, but know exactly the value and profit margin whoever your paying is taking so you don't get ripped off,
If you are at the stage of taking a sort of back seat co-owner role you can come work with me, I do need an advisor, someone with experience.

 

[Avey]

This is what I will look for in the future too. Running a server solo takes a lot of work and stress. Not sure if a legal contract about rates etc can help. Something I will look into in the future for sure.

 

[ShayPunter]

Hi! I have been hosting servers small and large, private and public since Minecraft original release (played before that in beta, of course, but that's when I became active host)

My current iteration of MC community (network which has 95% focus on our locally famous Survival) in today ages gets lucky to hit 20 players on peak, which is a shadow of our 300 player count daily when we were up against the biggest youtube in our wide region year ago.

To get to the point of this thread, I feel tired of trying to further grow my server back again as a primary and only owner (the next in hierarchy of my server is literally a low ranking moderator and then helper team handing out mutes)

The plan I am considering involves spending money, my existing dedicated server (if requested) and administration/community building personal time to contribute to the existing "established" server. Established can literally mean same size as me, as long as I get equal rights in return.. I also had this new community re-launch planned, very very professional custom illustrated logo made by my professional designer buddy for free, domain purchased, basic theme site built up, discord nearly ready to go, yet I got too tired to do real work of making sure lots of players join up and stay.

Again, this is feedback / assistance section so I expect just that, I want tips and tricks on how to make sure I get a fair offer in return of my monthly budget assistance I am willing to give to simply get an important say in a medium sized community.. getting money back is not even a requirement unless that means someone else will keep the profits that we did made. If I do end up as a full righted co-owner (2 owners situation for example) how do I make sure things don't fall apart when we disagree on minor crap? If it does, how do I make sure guy doesn't run off with all the assets while I keep nothing from my investment? I am always vary of equal-power situations so I am trying to get other peoples experience in this.

Not to make this thread more of a text-wall.. let me just press "post" now then, if I missed any important details make sure to ask!

Generally, I would shy away from having a co-owner, mainly because of the amount of additional stress you'll be dealing with on a managerial level, e.g. what if the other co-owner isn't contributing his fair share, what if he is skimming resources and other assets to use elsewhere, there's a fair amount to cover.

When it comes to co-owning, you'll want to have an agreement in place that'll generally say you both own an equal share of the revenue generated, as for the assets, well, that's complex, typically, I would just set up an LLC at that point and have the company own the assets, then both of you have equal ownership in the company.

An alternative solution would be to scrap the co-owner and instead bring on a general manager, who would then be in charge of server operations and growth while you take a more advisory role as an owner, making the high-level decisions such as releasing a new game mode, contributing opinions and thoughts into features, that sort of stuff, then the general manager would take care in executing upon that and dealing with the day to day running of the server.

Of course, it ultimately comes down to what you're after, are you merely wanting to be an investor and take a more backseat role or do you want to be involved in the day-to-day management of the server?

 

[makvo]

Damn guys. You all exactly echoed what I was thinking and writing haha. It is indeed a hard subject to give someone 50/50 in your decision-making as it always creates the illusion that you two will agree 100% on all small things lol.

Generally, I would shy away from having a co-owner, mainly because of the amount of additional stress you'll be dealing with on a managerial level, e.g. what if the other co-owner isn't contributing his fair share, what if he is skimming resources and other assets to use elsewhere, there's a fair amount to cover.

When it comes to co-owning, you'll want to have an agreement in place that'll generally say you both own an equal share of the revenue generated, as for the assets, well, that's complex, typically, I would just set up an LLC at that point and have the company own the assets, then both of you have equal ownership in the company.

An alternative solution would be to scrap the co-owner and instead bring on a general manager, who would then be in charge of server operations and growth while you take a more advisory role as an owner, making the high-level decisions such as releasing a new game mode, contributing opinions and thoughts into features, that sort of stuff, then the general manager would take care in executing upon that and dealing with the day to day running of the server.

Of course, it ultimately comes down to what you're after, are you merely wanting to be an investor and take a more backseat role or do you want to be involved in the day-to-day management of the server?

Yeah, I am starting to think LLC is the only way to go for minimizing issues discussed at reasonable levels.
Even though, I did not intend on making a Minecraft server that "serious and formal" (I already own LLC and I am aware of corporate laws and standards, but obviously its unrelated to Minecraft)

As for the last question, I am personally leaning towards the backseat yes. But definitely not fully.