Is the company properly formed yet? Did you use an attorney to do it? Essentially there is an entire process to creating the shares and issuing them. If he w

Is the company properly formed yet? Did you use an attorney to do it? Essentially there is an entire process to creating the shares and issuing them. If he wants to join and have his ownership his option is to sign the vesting agreement or not join. Not much other than that. You will have to deal with the potential that he/she says no thanks then and just jumps ship. If that happens what do they know you don't, is it a major problem? Can they hold the company hostage to accessing something they built before the company was created and the technology transfer was completed? This is best likely answered by an attorney that should be helping you with some of this, if not find one cause there are a ton of steps to properly form the company, transfer the IP from individuals and assign the shares etc. In the end, if one founder has a vesting agreement all should. And just in general, they are the right thing to do. Make sure this person also understands liquidation rules and vesting acceleration etc. I found someone I mentored last year didn't understand how vesting acceleration worked or when it would happen so they felt the vesting agreement was an investors way to shaft founders out of their total equity. A little time spent explaining the reasoning and benefits might help.