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What would be a fair equity distribution between me and my co-founder?

I started developing a software product 9 months ago which is now ready to launch. My buddy has come on board to help with the sales and marketing and has been helping for around 3 months now.

We are getting to a point where we need to decide the share allocation in the business. How do we work it out. He can't bring any money in so thats not an option.

Should we go 50 - 50 or does my 8 months of coding mean we should look at say 70 - 30

Any help or ideas would be great

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marked as duplicate by jimg, rbwhitaker, Zuly Gonzalez♦ Jan 10 at 16:02

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When two friends found a company from scratch and are both there working, from the first minute - things usually go 50/50.

But your friend came late and worked less than you.

The answer, however, in this case cannot be base on "time spent working". in 4 years, your 6 months of 'extra work' compared to your friend will mean nothing.

You should judge your friend based on his abilities and potential to help the company leap into the next phase. Is he great? can he do it? if so, give him more as it'll be worth it (dollar wise) to you in the long run.

Is he just a "helping hand" but not a star? give him as little as he'll go with, but do consider if you can afford having mediocre people on board in this critical phase of your startup. Don't give 50% of your business to a mediocre person just for "being there". This 50% will stick even if you get to a $1B business....

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