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The problem with this article is that the author is basing ownership of the company on things arguably irrelevant to the actual company- qualifications rather t
by gkoberger 17y ago
The problem with this article is that the author is basing ownership of the company on things arguably irrelevant to the actual company- qualifications rather than contributions.
For example, his partner may have equal qualifications. But who is to say that his partner will contribute an equal amount to the company?
A better way would be to come up with an agreement on how to evaluate equity X years in the future, based on their performance. This also accounts for future hires who deserve equity. Of course, part of the equity would have to be split up at the beginning- but, no more than 20%.
Why should someone get equity merely because they "worked in film before web development"? Instead, they should get equity because of the awesome demo video they made.
This is certainly harder, but it makes more sense. There's no rush to split up equity- after all, with the odds of flipping a company is relatively low and IPOs being nonexistent, it's something that can potentially be dealt with after a year or two.
- Flemlord 17y agoStrongly disagree about waiting 1-2 years to deal with equity issues -- equity should be dealt with immediately up front. Everybody should be issued equity via an ISOP based on their expected contribution over the next 4-6 years. If somebody outperforms the expectation, they should be issued more ISOP. If they underperform, they should be fired.
- aditya 17y agoExcept when you say to someone, I'm going to keep x% and you're going to get y% (where y is much less than x) because your future contribution isn't going to be as much as mine, that person is either a) going to walk away or b) have no motivation to perform at startup levels because you just screwed them over, especially if you're not out there killing yourself every day.