In September 2003, Standen proposed we sell advertising and turn our hobby into a business. He offered me a 50/50 share. I wasn't thrilled with the idea as I didn't want to work on it full time. Unlike Standen who enjoyed the prestige of a popular site to boost his profile, for me, Gearslutz was hard work. Being responsible for the site 24/7/365 meant I would be unable to go on tours.  As I was primarily a touring musician, my career would have to be put on hold.

Jules promised that as soon as the business made enough money to hire technical staff,  I could eventually wind down my involvement. Then I could return to my music and be rewarded with a 1/3 ongoing share for life. 

The proposition was attractive. Years ago I promised my Mom I would quit music if I hadn't made a solid living before I got old. Gearslutz seemed a way to could keep the promise to my poor worried mother whilst continuing to pursue my passion.

But my other skepticism was Standen's track record for spending more than he earned. Back in our mid-twenties we had been a couple and fought constantly over money. Standen had a habit of living beyond his means - only to borrow money from me every month. This was despite the fact he earned more than me and had wealthy parents. I didn't see this would make for a solid business foundation.  

So we agreed my share would be 33.3% of the gross profit minus technical expenses (which I controlled). That way he could spend lavishly on things like travel without affecting me. This would effectively make my share worth about 50% and stop us from fighting.  I would earn 33.3%  of the profits before technical expenses (gross profit) while I ran the servers.  Once we could afford to hire technical staff, I could take a less labor-intensive role and continue to earn my  33.3%  share of net profit as co-owner.

I had never trained as a web developer and taught myself every technical aspect of the business from running the servers, installing ad rotation software, updating the databases, creating chatrooms, replicating Mysql, applying modifications, battling dos attacks, security, design of graphics, creating & printing brochures. Aside from the Vbulletin software, everything we used was open source or self-coded.

But after two years of work on the site Standen reneged on the deal. He had since married Yasmin Kane. Though Kane had failed her barrister's exam a number of times, she nonetheless worked in law offices for many years and was well connected.