
Ask HN: Best way to negotiate startup equity for CTO role? - dseybermon
I&#x27;ve been offered the role of CTO in a startup whose business idea I am very interested in.<p>There are 3 other founders, one of which came up with the idea. I do not know what their equity stakes are.<p>What&#x27;s the best way of negotiating a good and fair equity stake, if I take the CTO role and become lead developer?
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sebg
Depends on how far along development is and whether you are coming in as a
founder CTO or first-employee CTO. 1) if still very early, then 100/4 seems
fair because you could be in business for a very long time with these people
so it makes sense to all be equal partners. 2) if some type of money has been
raised then it's a trickier proposition. Questions you want to ask: a) how
much money raised if any, b) other founder's shares, c) founder CTO or
employee CTO, c) how far along development is..... In case you haven't seen
them, some Quora answers: [https://www.quora.com/What-would-be-the-standard-
equity-perc...](https://www.quora.com/What-would-be-the-standard-equity-
percentage-given-to-a-technical-CTO-co-founder), [https://www.quora.com/What-
would-a-CTO-compensation-equity-b...](https://www.quora.com/What-would-a-CTO-
compensation-equity-be-for-a-small-startup), google the question and see
responses from a whole host of startup websites.

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dseybermon
Thanks for a great response.

A) No money raised, but the three existing founders are all committing
personal money to it (I may be asked to do the same). B) I can find out other
founders equity stakes. C) Pretty sure it's a founder CTO role, but can double
check this. D) No code developed so far, except an initial demo that I wrote
for them, which bagged me the offer for the position.

