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Ask HN: Advice about equity split

Here's my situation: I recently joined a startup a few months back that was founded roughly two years ago. However, in that time period, they never released a product nor gained customers. Since I've joined, a product has been released (100% my IP); we've gained a few customers; I've managed to narrow the scope of the business while honing in on our core value proposition. Currently, the startup only has two people working on it - myself and the original founder. He had a couple other co-founders work on it over the years, but due to various uncontrollable factors, they are no longer working on the product. When I signed on, I agreed to a status as co-founder and 25% equity, which I thought was fine. Now I know any percent of essentially $0 valuation is still 0, but I can't help feel I've really brought life into this startup and my contribution is more significant than 25%. The orginal co-founder, I recently found out, has around 60% equity, while the rest belongs to the other original founders (vesting, I guess). I have 0 complaints about the original founder. While not technical, he works hard, is passionate, and seems to be doing the right things. I haven't signed any document whatsoever, so my split is not set in stone or anything. Should I just throw this notion that I "deserve" a higher stake from my mind? What are your thoughts?

maxbrown 13y ago
If it's bugging you now, it'll bug you in the future. IMO you should deal with it head-on, soon. Curious - why would you not have created a new company when you started working with this person, instead of joining their legacy company with the long-gone co-founders holding equity? What is the existing company organization bringing to the table if there was no product released, and now there is a product released with 100% your IP?
- equityadvice000 13y ago
  As far as I can tell, the vision and values of the company have remained largely the same since its inception. The big missing piece was a product; although, even after the release, product-market fit still hasn't been completely established. I think it would be wrong to just ignore the hard work put in during those first two years, even though there wasn't anything tangible to show for it, except for a few mockup and some broken code (which is currently not being used at all). I'd feel a little guilty if (let's say), the product takes off and the original co-founders received nothing because a new entity was formed even though the idea remains the same.

maxbrown 13y ago

If it's bugging you now, it'll bug you in the future. IMO you should deal with it head-on, soon. Curious - why would you not have created a new company when you started working with this person, instead of joining their legacy company with the long-gone co-founders holding equity? What is the existing company organization bringing to the table if there was no product released, and now there is a product released with 100% your IP?

equityadvice000 13y ago
As far as I can tell, the vision and values of the company have remained largely the same since its inception. The big missing piece was a product; although, even after the release, product-market fit still hasn't been completely established. I think it would be wrong to just ignore the hard work put in during those first two years, even though there wasn't anything tangible to show for it, except for a few mockup and some broken code (which is currently not being used at all). I'd feel a little guilty if (let's say), the product takes off and the original co-founders received nothing because a new entity was formed even though the idea remains the same.