4 ms·

These situations seem tough. I have a handful of artist friends who constantly give me great app ideas. They can do the logo and icon and other art, but it's go

by rdouble 14y ago

These situations seem tough. I have a handful of artist friends who constantly give me great app ideas. They can do the logo and icon and other art, but it's going to be me doing 90% of the work. How does one include the original concept creator fairly?

columbo 14y ago
By giving them 10%. If (to your description) you consider the idea/logo 10% of the work then that's what it is worth.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- accountoftheday 14y ago
  10% may seem fair when the company is small but it will cause trouble later. What if the company becomes Facebook? Will future hires be angry that a short-time contributor gets 50x their equity upside? Will investors not balk at paying $500k for 10%, when someone else gets 10% common for having done a logo? Imho, the correct way to compensate not-really-founders is with a convertible note for the market value of their services times an appropriate risk multiple, or, if you can afford it, cash. (I have actually done this.)
  - columbo 14y ago
    Yeah I agree, it really depends on if you are talking about single instance work (just a logo) or for prolonged support (permanent unpaid). If I was asking someone to do logo and design work for free (and just that) I'd offer something like 10% of net income with a end of life maximum at $35,000. That would allow them to potentially receive much more cash than the time they invested. It also establishes an upper bound to prevent someone for getting 1% of a billion dollar company because they wrote some html a few decades ago. It's a risk-reward on both sides. Companies die off all the time. The vast majority of people that do work 'for a percentage' are going to get nothing. With all that said, cash is always easier
travisp 14y ago
Through negotiation and an explicit contract. What's fair is what you can both agree on. Unfortunately, it looks like everything was verbal in this case, so it's going to be hard for either side to say what the actual agreement was.
- dfxm12 14y ago
  If it is verbal, then it should be pretty cut and dry, right? Unless the different parties are claiming different verbiage was used...
pdog 14y ago
Slicing Pie[1] provides a simple and fair way to divide up equity in early stage companies. [1]: http://www.slicingpie.com/ http://www.slicingpie.com/
jfoster 14y ago
Concepts are only the initial pieces. They're in abundance. Everyone has more than they have time to explore. It doesn't take long to come up with new ones. What is true is that in some cases a concept might determine whether a company is able to be successful, but even in such cases the execution is far more likely to be the "make it or break it" work. Logos don't make or break companies.

by rdouble 14y ago

columbo 14y ago

By giving them 10%. If (to your description) you consider the idea/logo 10% of the work then that's what it is worth.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
accountoftheday 14y ago
10% may seem fair when the company is small but it will cause trouble later. What if the company becomes Facebook? Will future hires be angry that a short-time contributor gets 50x their equity upside? Will investors not balk at paying $500k for 10%, when someone else gets 10% common for having done a logo? Imho, the correct way to compensate not-really-founders is with a convertible note for the market value of their services times an appropriate risk multiple, or, if you can afford it, cash. (I have actually done this.)
- columbo 14y ago
  Yeah I agree, it really depends on if you are talking about single instance work (just a logo) or for prolonged support (permanent unpaid). If I was asking someone to do logo and design work for free (and just that) I'd offer something like 10% of net income with a end of life maximum at $35,000. That would allow them to potentially receive much more cash than the time they invested. It also establishes an upper bound to prevent someone for getting 1% of a billion dollar company because they wrote some html a few decades ago. It's a risk-reward on both sides. Companies die off all the time. The vast majority of people that do work 'for a percentage' are going to get nothing. With all that said, cash is always easier

travisp 14y ago

Through negotiation and an explicit contract. What's fair is what you can both agree on. Unfortunately, it looks like everything was verbal in this case, so it's going to be hard for either side to say what the actual agreement was.

dfxm12 14y ago
If it is verbal, then it should be pretty cut and dry, right? Unless the different parties are claiming different verbiage was used...

pdog 14y ago

Slicing Pie[1] provides a simple and fair way to divide up equity in early stage companies. [1]: http://www.slicingpie.com/ http://www.slicingpie.com/

jfoster 14y ago

Concepts are only the initial pieces. They're in abundance. Everyone has more than they have time to explore. It doesn't take long to come up with new ones. What is true is that in some cases a concept might determine whether a company is able to be successful, but even in such cases the execution is far more likely to be the "make it or break it" work. Logos don't make or break companies.