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"We’ll be your co-founder and will take equity in the business." Why would you agree to this before you saw a term sheet, or even how much equity they'll want.

"We’ll be your co-founder and will take equity in the business." Why would you agree to this before you saw a term sheet, or even how much equity they'll want. What happens if you see the terms and don't agree, after they've selected you or after they've built your product? It's an interesting idea, but crowdfunding seems to be a better alternative. Even better yet, build a MVP prototype first, validate it, and then get funding. Also, I am leery of a place that will select based on the input in a single HTML form textbox. Lastly, the idea is only a small part of success. Execution is a much bigger part of what will make or break a startup. So if they do all the execution, and you provide the idea, they may wind up asking for a 60/40 split in their favor, or even more. Another thought is that this may be geared to non-tech founders, or founders with little-to-no web engineering experience.

mjcarp 7y ago
Selection to move onto a next round of interviews is based on the HTML text box, think of this much like an online job application essentially. "Another thought is that this may be geared to non-tech founders, or founders with little-to-no web engineering experience." -- Certainly a subset that we would accept with open arms. Equity would be essentially based on the amount of time and money we put into the execution, even though a 60/40 split is extraordinarily high and not very conceivable in this scenario.
ddevjani 7y ago
The form is to schedule phone calls and meetings. You're right - execution is everything. We CAN help with it but the founder owns the idea and the execution. We take responsibility for all things tech and product. Design, build, update, maintain. Your engineering department. For free. The equity % depends on how complicated the product is to build and maintain. In line with what you would assign to a tech co-founder I think...

mjcarp 7y ago

Selection to move onto a next round of interviews is based on the HTML text box, think of this much like an online job application essentially. "Another thought is that this may be geared to non-tech founders, or founders with little-to-no web engineering experience." -- Certainly a subset that we would accept with open arms. Equity would be essentially based on the amount of time and money we put into the execution, even though a 60/40 split is extraordinarily high and not very conceivable in this scenario.

ddevjani 7y ago

The form is to schedule phone calls and meetings. You're right - execution is everything. We CAN help with it but the founder owns the idea and the execution. We take responsibility for all things tech and product. Design, build, update, maintain. Your engineering department. For free. The equity % depends on how complicated the product is to build and maintain. In line with what you would assign to a tech co-founder I think...