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Hacker News - Ask HN: Co-Founder Equity Split


Neo

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Hey all,

Quick question on equity split for a technical co-founder. I was approached by an ex-coworker whom I had great rapport with for joining his startup.

They currently have:

    - An idea

    - No revenue

    - No outside funding (I believe some things have been self-funded in the amount of maybe a few thousand dollars)

    - No MVP
The founder is focused on the business/product/marketing side and his current co-founder (brother) is perhaps a mid level backend engineer.

I am a sr. mobile engineer with full-stack capabilities and I have full confidence I could realize their MVP. I'd be coming on to the team with the most technical experience and perhaps the most important skillset for implementing the MVP.

Their first offer was 5%-10% equity without the title of a co-founder. After expressing my hesitancy toward that they have moved to 15% equity and co-founder title. I mentioned that I would be most comfortable with a split closer to equal, but I would pull the trigger on 25%. I would not be taking a paycheck.

Is this strange? They mentioned that their council told them that "cash is king" - in which the founder's existing and planned financial contributions outweigh my equity grant. Though I mentioned that I wouldn't be opposed to helping with financial contributions early on as well.

These seem like red-flags, but I honestly don't know. A big draw for me towards joining is just having some fun and getting the experience, but I want to look out for myself in the non-zero chance that the company becomes a financial success.


Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30549400

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