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> Have you done any market research? Have you talked to the prospective customers for this thing? Do you have any low-cost way of validating your gut-feeling ab

• mindcrime 13y ago
  I've done all 3, part of the reason I started to build them in the first place. Reading HN has enlightened me in many ways since I joined Excellent, glad to hear that! I understand your concerns on my behalf and thank you, but let's assume I did it all correctly, my question remains on how to decide equity with this friends with benefits scenario :) There is a thread of thought among some people, who argue that all the co-founders of a venture should have equal equity (with maybe one person with a tiny smidgeon more to break ties if there are even numbers). I think that's reasonable in a lot of cases, but maybe not all. Part of the thinking is, if one co-founder has significantly less equity, they might not be as motivated to work hard. I tend to think that if everybody is starting at the same time, that's probably fairly reasonable. OTOH, if one person (say, you) has been working on the project, creating value for a long period of time, and then the others come in later, I don't see a problem with you getting a larger share. But determining exactly how to value your existing "sweat equity" is kinda subjective. You want to strike a balance between everyone's interests, and keep in mind that "a small part of a large pie is better than a large part of no pie". If the venture is never going to fly at all without the help of your friends, go ahead and be generous in terms of their equity stake. Maybe work backwards from dividing evenly by the number of people involved, then skew it your way a bit to reflect the work you've already done? Anyway, best of luck to you!
  • rschmitty 13y ago
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts, appreciate it