I'm a new enterpreneur. A month and a half ago I was approach by my partner. We did not know each other. He was looking for a partner. He was not from the country. He came with the idea (something that is working in another country), he had done some research (a survey to 40 people) and he had done some numbers about the business.
We decided to start working together and if it worked, be partners. I stopped all the recruiting processes I was involved in and we decided to be partners. He told me he would be generous, he wanted us to be both happy with the equity split. He told me that as he had the initial idea and he had put many hours before, he was considering 75/25, 70/30.
On that moment, I was considering 50/50, 60/40 or 70/30. I told him that I would prefer 70/30 from his two offerings. The reason to consider 50/50 is that I'm the local, and I have contacts we are using to develop the business, and we are both starting at full time, and will be devoted to that full time.
After that I've talked to some business people, and most of them ask me, why 70/30? That should depend on the contributions of each of us.
Regarding responsabilities, for the moment we are doing quite everything together. i'm contacting all the suppliers, contacts, and will be more focused on mktg, whereas he will be more focused on financing (his expertise) and operations (which most probably will be subcontracted).
I'm considering to include a clause on the contract that revises, after 6 months, what have each of us brought to the business, and then have the possibility to buy some shares to increase my equity.
Do you think this is a fair option? Am i being too ambitious? I just want a fair equity split.
