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Suppose a startup has 5 founders with the next contributions...

1: X hours of work in the startup.
2: A patent (the design of a product never produced).
3: $50K of funding.
4: Marketing skills.
5: Direct Sales skills.

How we calculate equity based on the contributions difficult to convert to money? What is a typical strategy to deal with this issue?

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20% each.

If it works, 20% of something of value is nice to own. If it doesn't work, 20% of nothing is... well you get the picture.

In general, unless there is a compelling reason and complete agreement between all parties, it makes sense to go for an equal split. Of course, IMHO, YMMV, IANAL, etc.

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Your answers is the assumption of a final equity result perfectly equilibrated (not real), which is the origin of the question: How to calculate (or determine, measure, evaluate, have a better approximation of) the real value of contributions? – Nestor Sanchez A Jul 7 '12 at 23:41
Okay, so what is your compelling reason for a non-equal split? There must be one, or you wouldn't have asked the question. – Steve Jones Jul 9 '12 at 17:48
The reason is that work time (controlled) and money are directly measurable. But the others not. – Nestor Sanchez A Jul 9 '12 at 19:16
That isn't strictly true and even if it was it isn't sufficient justification to deviate from the equal split, IMHO. For example, Partner A may work 1000 hours and not really get anywhere, while Partner B may make a couple of phone calls that help the business double revenue overnight. Who made the best contribution? – Steve Jones Jul 10 '12 at 9:11

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