

Technical Cofounder's Pie - paul_draper

A friend of mine has a startup idea, and has asked me to be the technology partner. He is investing 50k USD into the venture. The business idea is his and execution will be done by him as well. Both of us have day jobs which we will keep and plan to spend about 20 hrs a week.<p>The question is what will be an appropriate equity that I should ask?
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useflyer
Worry about the money second. As the technical co-founder you'll be
contributing half of your time to the venture.

Ideas are worth absolutely nothing, try selling one. Don't worry that it's his
idea, the idea SHOULD and WILL evolve as you develop it, and the idea will
then be both of yours.

Money obviously has value, but at this stage of the venture, it's too early to
size it. He should loan the money to the company in the form of a convertible
note (giving him a nice return on his money) and valuation will come down the
road when there's more transparency. You should each split 50/50 the equity,
with him holding the debt. Anything less would be unfair to YOU.

Let the equity vest based on hours worked; that way, if one of you goes from
20 to 60 hours, it's much easier to figure out how that works ahead of time.

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denishennessy
Ask yourself how much time you'll need to invest (up to when it becomes self-
sustaining). Multiply that be a reasonable hourly rate. Compare that the the
$$$ + time the other founder is investing.

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paul_draper
Thanks for the comments.

