
Ask HN: How to handle one cofounder not being committed? - humblestartup
We’re a growing startup with 3 founders equal in equity but one of us is not able to commit as fully as the rest. We’ve been building a product for about a year and self-funded the efforts. We’re seeing some promising traction and modest profits of about $2000&#x2F;month.<p>At this point we need someone to really promote the product and get our revenue numbers higher but the marketing cofounder isn’t able to fill the role due to personal obligations.<p>Given that we can’t afford to hire someone for marketing, what is the right path at this point?<p>Some options we’re considering (would require agreement from all of us):<p>- Restructure the company so that equity scales with commitment. This way the less committed cofounder would free up some equity to bring on a 4th cofounder for the marketing role<p>- Bring on a 4th cofounder and everyone reduces from 1&#x2F;3 to 1&#x2F;4 equity<p>- Bring on a cofounder for small equity (~3%) which comes out of our equity amounts equally<p>- Seek seed investment, use that to hire an employee<p>Are there any options I’m missing in this situation where an essential cofounder isn’t putting in enough effort?
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DyslexicAtheist
> Are there any options I’m missing in this situation where an essential
> cofounder isn’t putting in enough effort?

one way I have seen this play out often is to get rid of them, then dilute the
shares of the original investment.

ethical or fair? depends on the situation but nothing is as expensive as
keeping a non performing asset on your team when starting out. not solving the
situation can be what makes all of you fail collectively later.

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staticautomatic
Seed investor partially buys out your underperformer.

