
Ask HN: Two co-founders meet in a bar.. what next? Seriously - password03
Hi Guys<p>So I posted a question on a more local business forum about how to go about partnering with a stranger who approached me for a startup.<p>I have been saying that we go 50&#x2F;50. I do the engineer and he does the business. I was asking about how to practically go about forming a relationship that protects us both etc but I got completely flamed about being naive and getting abused by the &quot;biz guy with the idea&quot;. Their argument was that I would put in all the work, my time was valuable and I should get paid for it thus not build his app for free.<p>I&#x27;m having a hard time agreeing with that to be honest and I just ditched the conversation. Am I being totally naive?<p>I think the non engineer has plenty to bring to the table with regards business development, sales, domain knowledge etc. I personally feel we are perfectly paired and I would much rather partner up with a stranger than friend&#x2F;family member.<p>The way I see it is that we will both go out and take a punt on the concept and see what happens. I am really stressing a &quot;LEAN&quot; approach with short feedback loops so I don&#x27;t get burned building out a product that nobody wants.<p>What is the take of engineers on here who get approached to co-found with engineers? I am sure that insisting on getting market rate for your efforts is a non runner if you are ending up with 50% equity in the company holding the revenue&#x2F;profits&#x2F;IP.
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siegel
Well, I can see the concern if he's not going to be devoting the time and
resources that you would be. If you will both be devoted equally, 50-50 (or
something similar) might be sense.

But you can solve your concerns without varying the equity division. The
company you form only owns the IP you create if your agreement with the
company says so. You could agree that, for example, the IP you develop only
gets assigned to the company if certain business milestones are met. Or,
conversely, you can immediately assign the IP, but have a right to buy it back
for a nominal amount if certain milestones are not met by your co-founder.

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sharemywin
Build a sign up page and have if get X many people to signup for the beta
testing.

1\. track your hours

2\. he shouldn't get a commission until you start getting paid back for your
hours.

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password03
Interesting.. I was thinking about that but what if he argues his time is
worth money also. As part of that argument, partner then wishes to clock his
hours and get paid back also. Does that put us back to square one.

I often come across, what I would often describe as an arrogance (for want of
a better term) as some people that originated the idea. They often think they
are the brains and the engineer is the brawn..

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sharemywin
Another alternative is to find a client and let them pay for 80% of it through
some kind of consulting

