Moar this. I've been in situations where the "idea" was driven by the "marketing guy," and it did not turn out well for me or my other technical partner.

When I saw the writing on the wall, I called a meeting and told them I didn't see the pay off of what we were doing and they were free to continue with my contributions. They sold a total of like $100 worth of apps after working on the project for another 10 months.

The last sentence sounds familiar to me: I built a fully-functional MVP over a few hundred hours. My partner, a family member, was going to sell it. I picked the niche because it's not very SEO-friendly and so he, being completely non-technical, had something to contribute.

He made ~6 sales in 1 month, never lifted a finger in the ~14 months since.

The app has run smoothly with virtually zero intervention on my part, so that was a win, at least. We have a couple of customers remaining.

At least you got out early, I guess?

I'd say. My friend who stayed didn't look for a new job after his employer went under (like many mobile gaming companies did when their games got rejected from the appstore), so he moved into his parents house to finish the projects. In all, he created 10 apps, using a lot of the technology I originally built. His "partner" sued him for 98% ownership of essentially nothing. It turned out sad for everyone involved.

I don't disagree, however if this hasn't been the idea, it's going to be a hard sell now.

If the plan was "hey, let's build this mvp and meanwhile I'll do x, y, and z marketing materials, and then we'll get out and sell!" and OP agreed, well--that's where he's at.

Saying "well I'm not working until you get 10 customers" at this point is not okay.

In the future, OP: take this very good advice.

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Honoring commitments is important, but so is adjusting to new information, even if it's only new information about your own productivity and mental state, or the revealed imbalance in critical-path-tasks and hourly commitments between partners.

OP may need more time away from the project, or may need more teammates with the right tech skills to help on current-bottlenecks.

Maybe knowing that 10 paying customers are lined up would help, as motivation and improved confidence in the partner's ability to equally contribute. (Maybe it's allow recruiting more technical help.) But maybe more people waiting for the completion would only add to the pressure and anxiety; he'll have to think about that.

I strongly suspect a major part of the problem is that OP has no peer technical help on the critical-path – all his partner can do is ask, "is it done yet?" That's a broken team.

"I'm not working any more weekends until you get 10 customers" seems fair, though!

Agreed. Or "I'll work as much as you do."

Laex makes a valid point.

I would suggest you stop and take a day off before you get fully burnt out.

There is no sense in spending all this time and energy on a product you haven't even validated especially before you've launched.

You could spend years making the "perfect product" without ever knowing if the product is something someone will purchase. Or you could ship a minimum viable product and test whether your product is something someone will purchase.

Eric Ries talks about the minimum viable product in his book "The Lean Startup", which I would highly recommend. I think it would help you and your marketing partner get some much needed context to your situation.

Good luck!

THIS. Dear God reactivator read this again and let each word sink in deep, because it's the most important and valuable advice you can get.