Dear Mr Collier,
No I don't have any written agreements with these people.
The thing is "I've been promised some Shares of the company once the company became stable and profitable in return for my branding and marketing services including logo design and other services" and this was all verbally.
Now I do have several text messages and Emails from here and there and some witnesses confirming parts of our verbal agreement, but I do not have any written contract or specified dates or amount.
Like I said, it's a one year story with so many documents and proofs from here and there that should be gathered in one place to make sense out of this puzzle!
Now...
Do you think I'd be able to pursue my rights in Small claims court and win? Which way should I go Breach of verbal contract or Use of my artwork ?
Do you think I'd be able to find any attorney to work with me on this case on contingency basis?
Thank you very much for your help in advance

If your verbal agreement was for more than a year of services, you probably have a Statute of Frauds problem. Whether you go to small claims or not depends on your damages, and I cannot tell from your post how much you expected to get paid or how much the logo is worth to the putative Defendant. If that exceeds the small claims jurisdiction, then no small claims is not the way to go. I am not allowed, under California law, to predict the outcome of your case, but I think you have said enough here to make it worthwhile to have an in-person consultation with a lawyer in your area. Yes, I suspect there may be a lawyer willing to work on this on contingent-fee, but you will not know until you try. Check out www.cela.org for a listing of California employment lawyers in your area.

Best of luck,