Should I negotiate to be a co-founder?

When you are part of a startup, you have many titles. From founder, to janitor, to developer to chief head bottle washer. A co-founder or founder is really a classification that transcends what you really do. Now, it's important to have such classifications because it bestows a certain amount of respect to the pioneers that came together to get the idea off the ground.

In your case, as Jeff put it, you are a founder if you were with the company before it officially incorporated. With that settled, what you really need to figure out is, as a founder, what will you contribute to the company. The reason being, titles are worthless unless you build something of value. No one really cares about titles unless the venture is successful. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to gain recognition as your venture become more and more successful.

So, my advice, have your business card say founder and your other title. That's what we did at my gig and it works out fine.

IMHO - co-founder is a title you automatically earn by actually help start a company. Looks a little silly on your office door.

As others have mentioned, you seem to have the wrong perspective. You are looking for a title just so that it looks good to other people. That is the wrong way to go through life and it would disturb me if I was your future partner or boss.

If you like the work and opportunity, go for it. If not, skip it, but don't do it for a silly title.

Some people would be happily called the janitor if it let them join a company where they had great work and loved what they did.

You don't "negotiate" to become a founder. Either you are, or you aren't. It isn't something that is in a job offer.

There is a company in Sarasota FL that I was told about in a business class. There is only one person in the entire company that has a title, and that is the Plant Manager. She is the lady that goes around watering the plants.

The idea being that titles really are meaningless. For many years my title was Computer Research Specialist. But, what does that really mean? I had to define my job and determine what title would apply to it.

If you want to be more visible outside the company then try to get into a role where you do spend time talking at conferences or meeting with potential clients, so that you can be seen.

If you want a title just to make yourself feel important, then others have dealt with that issue very well already.

Your friend did the work so far, what is your expected role to be, just helping with extending the main invention? Then you may end up seeing about being the head of R&D for example, if he is going to be the CEO/COO, but if he wants to maintain being the head of R&D then you may be out of luck, and should you not be able to find fulfillment helping this company get off the ground.

+1 Dane, hit the nail on the head.

Phaedrus: You mention outside visibility several times. I am curious as to why this is of such importance? Yes, sometimes the situation is "what you ask for is what you get". However, no matter what your title is, your outside visibility will always translate from the inside to the outside; and this is done via significant contribution to the business itself. I know many "key employees" in different businesses that have higher outside visibility than the co-founders of the same businesses.

You also mentioned the separation of management from executives; perhaps I don't understand correctly, but if you are talking about outside management, most of the time it is not necessary this early in the business. What I'm trying to say is, the executive teams should be the managers at this point.

As for earning the title of "co-founder", I think it depends on the following factors:

• Size of the business
• How far the business has progressed, or what "stage" it currently is in
• What and how much you contribute as an individual to the company (work, investment, etc.)
• What you are hoping to get out of the "co-founder" title (equity, valor, recognition, etc.)

The best you can do is just sit down and talk with your friend. Find out what he expects from you, tell him what you want and expect from him/the business, and go from there.

I would approach this carefully, but I agree, if you want to get the visibility later down the line you need to act soon. Some will say don't worry about titles. As a young entrepreneur in my 20's with two multi-million dollar start-ups under my belt, I can say titles DO matter - sometimes... I do not flaunt my titles (chairmen / CEO for both) in email signatures or on business cards, even in casual conversation. But when the bankers stop by they know who to talk to. Before they learn my title, they usually make all the eye contact with my sales manager who is in his 40's.

If one of my initial employees would have approached me with an EXCELLENT idea on how he/she was going to take on a new project, solve a big problem, provide long term value etc, etc etc, I may have been open to the idea of them being called a co-founder.

I would identify this problem with your mentor. What is he/she worried about? What is his/her biggest concern? Find a way to mitigate that risk and say "if I pull this off, I get to be called co-founder, deal?"

If you can't deliver this kind of value, lets face it, you shouldn't be called co-founder.

I'm 10 months late replying to this... but my perspective is:

If something is important to you, you should be sure that you discuss it before you sign up.

It doesn't matter what it is. Salary, stock, office location, what brand of bottled water will be in the kitchen. This applies to any situation--founding a company, starting a job, or buying a house.

Just beware--The other party may feel that which you hold important to be trite or ridiculous (such as the brand of bottled water... or the co-founder title).

In my mind, a co-founder is someone who shows up before the company exists, goes far beyond the call of duty of a regular employee (months or years without salary, 80+ hour weeks, wears a lot of hats, does whatever needs to be done to push the company forward). The key elements here are going beyond the call of duty to contribute and incurring significant personal financial burden.

In the above described situation, if you'd be joining prior to the company starting, bringing money into the company, and not taking money out while trying to raise funds or close sales... that would be a co-founder.