I worked with someone for about a year without making any money. We had to part ways without anything to show for it. I can empathize. You didn't say why your

I worked with someone for about a year without making any money. We had to part ways without anything to show for it. I can empathize. You didn't say why your co-founder wants to fire you. I suggest digging deeper into those reasons before you haggle on your exit terms. Assuming you weren't negligent: I would try to point out that pushing you out one month before your equity vests is bad faith on your co-founder's side. Offer to leave voluntarily after your one-year cliff. Otherwise, if your co-founder just wants you gone now, request that you keep your 1-year equity and some severance. Furthermore: Sometimes it's cheaper to just close the company and use the "lessons learned" to restart a very similar company... And that very similar company won't owe you anything. [Edit: Deleted some text that, after reading the discussion, isn't relevant.]