I think the right questions is, "Why don't you want to give up shares?" If it's because you're worried about giving up equity, get over it. If it's because yo

I think the right questions is, "Why don't you want to give up shares?" If it's because you're worried about giving up equity, get over it. If it's because you don't trust the guy's judgement, then it might be more reasonable. Another thing is that you don't have to have a 50/50 split to be co-founders. If you've got a 10+% stake in a company and come in pre-money, I'd consider that a co-founder. If you're just worried about giving up equity, you'll need to break yourself of that. It'll kick you in the ass later on dealing with additional people coming on or when talking to investors. You'd be much better off building a team with "skin in the game". Just set out a vesting schedule with a 1 year cliff or something so that if somebody doesn't fit that there's a period of time where that can be evaluated. Be straight-up with them that that's happening.