I am thinking of joining a friend's startup. He is pitching for clients and investors while I am developing the app. What are the things to bear in mind before joining there full time?

As soon as you become remotely ok at coding you are going to have a thousand people who want you to build their idea. In the end, it boils down to this:

- Do you believe in the idea?

- Do you believe it is good enough to work on it for free for at least a year?

- Do you believe your skills are complementary enough?

- Do you guys get along well enough to be in the trenches together?

And just a final thought. I would say always get a third person on board. I have had a bad experience with 50/50 structures. You need someone to be the deciding vote when shit hits the fan.

be prepared to not be friends anymore with him.

And if you're a founding partner get a lawyer that sets up a contract on what happens if you leave, money wise.

Not everyone is out to get you. But some things to bear (or is it bare? Whatever) in mi- no it's definitely bare. Oh why is my brain like this. Why can't I just stay on track ok here it is: (some things to bare in mind - nnoooo, it might be bare but I feel like using bear instead so, ) here are some things to bear in mi. Nup. Has to be bare. here are some things to bare in mind:

Fuck I forgot now. I'll come back when I can remember.

@JohnnyBvo it has to be somebody who trusts you and you trust (the third), especially if the second is more outgoing and more sociable than you are because it's almost natural for them to turn people against you when shit hits the fan.

@JaseSquad agree with everything you said except it should be "bear in mind". Here "bear" is used as a verb meaning to carry or support something, such as "the support bears the weight of the bridge".

Make sure the expectations and conditions are absolutely clear for both sides. Otherwise it can turn a bit messy.
E.g.:
- What exactly is your job? Full stack dev + sysadmin ("the on IT guy") or the developer for the Android app?
- Under what terms will you work? 9 to 5, 40h a week without any overtime or overtime on demand, but otherwise only 30h a week? Are you willing to do any overtime at all?

This will hopefully reduce the stress of both sides, to not expect things from the other, when the persons doesn't want to do it.

Where are you in your development career? If you’re still early and truly believe in the idea it’s worth the shot, otherwise you have to think about the opportunity cost of forgoing a good salary for the forseeable future. I did the same thing few yeas ago, quit a well paying job and dedicated 6 months to a startup with 2 mates, built the product but didn’t work out as the idea didn’t solve a real market need, i got a job again.