The founders tag has no wiki summary.
1
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4answers
39 views
Non-dilutable options
I have an entity I've been working on for roughly 4 years, the last being a real push to get it out the door. A student recently joined me and got us into a student business plan competition and we ...
4
votes
2answers
203 views
Left my startup pre-launch. What percent equity is fair?
6 months ago I quit my job to start a startup with two other people. I'm the business guy. I worked full-time on the project from day No. 1, and made substantial contributions to branding, customer ...
0
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2answers
146 views
One Founder, Now What? [closed]
I am the only founder of my company as I outsourced the development for now. So far, I am handling everything. Making strategic decisions, how to penetrate into the market, etc. I am in a desperate ...
1
vote
2answers
94 views
How do divide up equity if I'm providing the idea, mentoring and a smalll amount of funding
I have what I think is a really good idea for a product/business. I don't have time to develop it so I'm thinking of sharing the idea with some entrepreneurship students at a local university.
I ...
2
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3answers
152 views
What to do with equity if co-founder / early employee quits?
I founded a company on my own a couple of years back. Got a couple of small clients on board and started making money (not a lot!).
Worked for 1 year on it alone and decided to get an excellent ...
0
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0answers
16 views
Dividing equity for a Management Buyout
I currently work as CTO and VP Engineering with a company that has offered to sell the company to the President. The president and I originally started this company that was acquired several years ...
0
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0answers
60 views
Fair equity/cash for one year's contribution?
So I asked a broader question on this situation before, but am now trying to narrow it down to the core issue after negotiations failed yet again with my co-founders.
I am a tech guy who joined a ...
1
vote
5answers
229 views
What Should I do as Founder
Hope you can help me out with little advice here. I recently founded a website and I have no technical programming. Perhaps I was lucky that I found a rich partner who can't work full time. But he has ...
0
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2answers
157 views
Single Founder Rate of Success
I've spent quite a lot of time, met quite a lot of people, but still am failing at trying to find a cofounder for my startup.
I've gone to numerous tech-meetups, met 1:1 with quite a few people, ...
0
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2answers
22 views
Director service contracts
The two of us are going to found a company and will work on all necessary tasks without taking pay at least for the first year. In this case, are we going to be Executive Directors? If so, will we ...
1
vote
1answer
153 views
Splitting equity between founders
X was working part-time on an idea and after about a year and a basic demo in hand, he talked to two potential people (A and B) who would become co-founders but would work part-time just like X. The ...
1
vote
2answers
81 views
Equity split for non day-to-day founder
I wish that my equity situation for my new company were easy; unfortunately it's not - so I'd love feedback and thoughts.
I met with a well connected business person (we'll call him Karl), and he had ...
0
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2answers
190 views
Are non-technical co-founders worth it in the first round?
Background
I am a developer by day, working on some of my own side projects at night.
I have been approached recently by an acquintance who makes his living as a business analyst. He has a decent ...
3
votes
0answers
116 views
Equity for First paid Tech-employee in a not-profitable financed Startup
I'm trying to be as specific as possible here:
We are a Startup 5 months on the go with three co-founders. Since none of us can truly code we need to employ our first Web-developer and we have found ...
9
votes
3answers
330 views
Can I divorce a co-founder
There are currently 3 cofounders and 1 of them is an engineer other 2 are sales representatives. Many of the times technical cofounder doesn't agree with our views and is backed by his team containing ...
0
votes
3answers
174 views
Co-founder question
This is my first startup.
I was working with a friend on his startup. He was going to offer me 20% of the company and we worked on it for 4 months. The idea was good but we ran out of money before we ...
1
vote
2answers
256 views
Dealing with Co-founder without the same commitment
Imagine the following scenario:
1 founder and self proclaimed CEO , created an idea for a new website internet services, and started developing it. The core of the system is done, he decides that one ...
2
votes
1answer
108 views
Moral Question regarding Co-Founders
When I joined a friend at our start-up I said I'd do two years then leave (I want to do other things), so we raised seed and my two years were up a few months ago. Now we're trying to raised a series ...
-1
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1answer
83 views
When a founder hires a CEO, should the founder still get paid?
When a founder of a start up hires a ceo, and the founder owns 50% or more of the company. Should the founder still get paid out of investors money?
2
votes
3answers
427 views
I might be leaving a startup I co-founded. What are my options?
I co-founded a startup and have been with them for almost a year now. I own around 40 percent of the company, which is to be vested over 3 years. So far, about 1/3 of it has been vested. On top of ...
7
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8answers
2k views
Investor wants 51% shares of our company
We are five engineering students, going to start up a company.
As there are many competitor companies in the market, we were looking for an investor to start very big.
Fortunately, we found an ...
0
votes
1answer
188 views
Where to put vesting schedule for founders?
For a new corporation, should the vesting schedule and related conditions be written in the Articles of Incorporation, Shareholders Agreement or as a separate document?
Thanks for any advice.
4
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2answers
241 views
Is this a fair CEO offer for an experienced CFO/COO
My question/story is this: two years ago I broke ground on a startup. We planned and planned, raised some funds and broke ground writing code. Two years later we put $250k into the business, have ...
3
votes
1answer
132 views
How to estimate value of non monetary and non working hours contributions?
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: ...
6
votes
4answers
275 views
If I write code with someone just together, are they entitled to equity in my startup?
If a friend casually wanted to hack with me and we wrote something that took off, are they entitled to equity in my company?
-1
votes
2answers
148 views
Equity splits for new company are threatening to tear it apart before it gets off the ground
hope to get a few outside opinions here.
The cast of the saga:
"M" - the "idea person", has experience, has (or will have) money from property in near future, unemployed at present
"B" - A ...
0
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0answers
64 views
Need a senior rails developer quick
Our nascent startup in something of a desperate situation. We received a term sheet from an accelerator yesterday requiring us to colocate in NYC for the summer to work on the project in exchange for ...
4
votes
4answers
607 views
Can startup funding cover founder's personal expenses?
I and a friend of mine are working on our own web startup. Right now we are coding the whole thing and would be looking for investors 3-4 months down the line. My question is, can we include our own ...
0
votes
2answers
134 views
Can a company founded by foreign citizen be awarded a DARPA grant?
Can I apply for a DARPA grant, being a foreign citizen who has founded a company in the US?
The company would be located in the US and there would be other founders with US citizenship.
0
votes
1answer
48 views
What is the significance of members holding their interest in the company in “holding companies”?
We are putting together the operating agreement for our company, and one of the questions in the worksheet we are going off of is:
Will some Members be holding their interests in holding ...
3
votes
1answer
931 views
What's a good ratio between founder equity and early employee equity?
I'm looking into the equity for the 2nd employee of an early-stage startup. I've seen lots of rules of thumbs out there (some people say 1%) but it's hard to apply because some rules of thumb refer ...
2
votes
1answer
237 views
Why do the most popular and successful startups generally have founders from the top 10 universities?
Pretty much, you see ["Harvard", "Stanford", "MIT", "Yale", "Princeton",...] ubiquitously in the bios of startup founders. Sure, in some cases they may have dropped out, but none the less they got ...
-1
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2answers
207 views
What title to give to a non-founder first person in company
This question is a follow up to another question but it stands as a question by itself so i decided to ask it separately..
i am a single-founder starting a company and hence looking for ...
2
votes
2answers
96 views
Who owns this product?
What steps should I take to protect myself (and the company) as the sole developer of the product?
My business partner will be handling the business side of things.
It was his idea, originally, we ...
2
votes
8answers
1k views
20% equity and CTO. (Story and details). Is this fair?
This is a long exposition.
Please bear with me, I think that I need to provide as much specifics as possible, while keeping it as short as possible. Thanks for reading, any feedback is much ...
8
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1answer
2k views
How to Divide Up Your Company's Equity
We get a lot of questions about dividing equity and for good reason. Dividing up your startup's equity creates a lot of heart burn for all of us. It's a tremendously stressful affair if you have never ...
4
votes
3answers
497 views
Are co-founders employees? Do they need to be paid minimum wage?
If there is a co-founder with 20% equity in the company but no salary, what is his status in the company? Should he be considered an employee? What is the difference between a cofounder and an ...
0
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6answers
285 views
What biography is both inspiring and relevant to a modern technology startup?
Who have you enjoyed reading about most? Which biography has provided the most insight and perspective into a brilliant founder's mind?
I have really enjoyed Founders at Work, by the way - even ...
12
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8answers
2k views
Should we award equity based on specific performance metrics?
My team and I are nearing the launch of our initial product this August. We are wanting to develop a metrics-based system that will be implemented upon product launch that will determine founder's ...
3
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2answers
408 views
Is there a tax liability for reverse vesting founder stock/units?
A friend and I formed an Oregon LLC in 2008 for an online business. Now we're up and running and both working on it full-time. Now we've both moved to Texas and want to re-form as a Texas company ...
3
votes
3answers
313 views
If I launch a new division within my employer's company, should it be treated as a separate startup?
I've been working for my current employer for the past several years as CTO. I recently pitched them on starting a separate division that is more entrepreneurial and experimental to spin out ...
2
votes
1answer
253 views
Start-up team organization, shares and duties. Advice needed
We are a group of 5 people working on an idea for a start-up. The aim is to find an investor that would allow us to develop the project fully. Now we're just at the idea and presentation stage.
3 of ...
1
vote
2answers
338 views
Founders' salaries
Need help.
Startup. Several founders. Got investments n$. Worked for free after getting investments 6 months. Reached and even more, KPIs, Investors are very happy. Now new round with new investors ...
5
votes
3answers
194 views
Are there Internet startups that became successful without enormous time commitment from employees?
The software and Internet startup companies I've worked for required 60, 80, or more hours a week of their employees (not just founders), for extended periods of time, up to a year. Are there examples ...
1
vote
3answers
155 views
How do tech founders keep control over the core technology as their company grows?
Take for example, Google:
As I understand, the search engine was started as a research project.
(by the way, was it patented or the code is fully open through the contents of the respective thesis ...
9
votes
1answer
447 views
Prenuptial separation agreement for cofounders
My apologies if this question has been asked before. I tried to find the answer reviewing other questions and still don't have the answer so here is the question(s):
We are now setting up the ...
6
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2answers
309 views
How do you start your own company while running someone else's company?
I've been running an in-office and online educational business for 3 years. The original partners are offering me a small equity share, but there is no contract yet (nor has there ever been one). I ...
6
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5answers
651 views
Should I drop my co-founder?
So I started building this company back in January, completely on my own. I knew there would be a lot of work to be done, so just recently I told a PHP buddy about the site. He got really excited ...
2
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4answers
105 views
How investors decide, jockey or horse?
For your experience do investors bet on the jockey (founder-s) more than on the horse (idea), when it comes to startups?
Also what is general considered attractive investment opportunity when it ...
0
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1answer
383 views
Fair method to divide shares in a new business venture
I recently came up with an idea for some protective equipment for pro athletes. Discussed it with 2 friends (one is an engineer with lots of experience in developing products and the other has some ...
