

Ask HN: How do I winnow my cofounders after a Startup Weekend victory? - TooManyFounders

My team recently won a Startup Weekend event with what is by all accounts a great idea in a wide-open space, and we&#x27;ve been offered a substantial seed investment to take it full time. Unfortunately, the team is huge (8 people) and everyone <i>says</i> they want to stay on.<p>Not only do we lack anyone I would be comfortable describing as a technical cofounder (I&#x27;m a designer&#x2F;PM with previous startup experience), but 6 of the 8 are marketing&#x2F;PR&#x2F;&quot;business&quot; types with little tech knowledge at all and won&#x27;t fully commit until the company is on more solid footing.<p>Myself (the nominal team leader) and one other guy are ready to take the plunge, but we&#x27;re conflicted about how to handle the others. Should we demand a full-time commitment or they get nothing? Should we give them a small amount of equity (3% each) to move along quietly?
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anthony_franco
I'd suggest not granting equity outright, but instead granting it on a vesting
schedule, maybe over four years.

And you could create a vesting agreement that would apply to everyone,
including yourselves. Maybe something along the lines of: every day that
you're working, your equity vests more, with it weighted more heavily on the
first year or two since there's more risk involved.

Actually I've never heard of someone granting equity in that way, but it might
get you thinking in the right direction.

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onion2k
Overwhelmingly startups fail on things that aren't technology related -
usually either the team falling apart or failure to get traction. If those
marketing and PR people are good at what they do getting them on board for a
small percentage of equity at the start will be invaluable.

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TooManyFounders
My concern isn't really technology (I used the lack of a technical founder as
an illustration of the team's makeup) as much as the decision paralysis that
comes with such a large team; I can hire a developer, but it's already near-
impossible to wrangle the entire team together to set a meeting time, for
example.

I guess the question is how can I gently push the rest of the team to a place
where it falls apart now instead of 3 months from now, if that's the direction
that it's headed? I'm worried that appointing a CEO-like figure with carte
blanche over operations isn't going to be enough when equity is split 8 ways
and the rubber really hits the road.

