3 ms·
The general advice I've heard is you don't ever want 50/50 splits because if there are important decisions to be made, you can often end up in deadlock, and no
by ry0ohki 16y ago
The general advice I've heard is you don't ever want 50/50 splits because if there are important decisions to be made, you can often end up in deadlock, and no one is truly in charge of making a final call or being responsible. Since I don't have enough karma on onstartups to ask Joel this, I'm curious what his response would be.
- patrickyeon 16y agoOne way I've heard of to solve that problem is 45/45 and 10% to a mutually agreed upon third party (a mentor, say) who can (and has what it takes to) break those ties. I'm sure there's a bit more contractual magic to make sure the third party doesn't just sell off their part, and some people may balk at just giving away one tenth of their company. I would argue that if you're worried about 50/50 splits pulling your company apart, it's worth that small number of shares to keep your company going.
- _chap 16y agoI use to think this way, but I'm agreeing with Joel. If the 2 founders can't make a contentious decision as a team, they're not much of a team.