
Ask HN: How much equity should I ask as technical cofounder? - Labo333
Hi there,<p>I&#x27;m creating a startup with a good friend (15+ years).
He is non technical while I am a computer scientist and considered brilliant in my field.<p>At the beginning, he had a totally different idea in a totally different field, but I explained
him why it was nonsensical (guess what, it was about blockchain).<p>Then he had an &quot;idea&quot; that was the combination of<p>1) a ~technology I introduced him to for the first idea (more like a CS field than a technology)<p>2) a field it could be applied to<p>But his idea was really confuse, it was just the combination of two concepts.
We worked a lot together to make it work (3 months, about 10-15 hours a week).
I believe very few people could have done this much:<p>- He would never have been able to understand anything of the technical part, and I suppose
nobody in the scientific community would have given him so much time and attention like I did.<p>- I would never have had the will to investigate that, and he was more focused on the business
part than I am.<p>Honestly, I think our contributions are quite balanced, but now our idea requires
to have some relationships with regulatory authorities, and as a matter of fact,
my friend&#x27;s father is rich and influential (mine are not poor and have relationships,
but it is really not comparable). His father wants to invest a lot of money in our project
(2M for the first 6 months).<p>(see the rest below in the comments)
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Labo333
Besides, I am still studying (while he is "unemployed") and want to study next
year (September 2018) in another country (1 hour by plane). He was worried a
lot about the fact I wouldn't be able to work on the idea, but I promised him
I would be as much available as I can, and that I just needed to go to the
university for the exams (which is true) and could handle my thesis by emails.
So I'll be a but sacrificing my degree for our project.

Now, we are discussing about the shares, more precisely what our relative
repartition should be after some rounds of founding.

I said 40/60 while he said 33/66\. I feel bad about the fact he would have
twice as much as me.

He said he was the one with the ideas, and that although I always had all the
answers to his questions, the questions are more valuable. I don't think it is
true, IMO I asked him the business related questions while he asked me the
technical ones. It is just that he had a lot more questions because… well…
business people don't know anything, while business is easily understandable
and I have a broad experience that allows me to understand it. So in a sense
his argument is just that BECAUSE I have more knowledge I contributed less.

He said he only came to see me as a technical consultant and that 33% was
already a lot.

He also gave me a lot of examples of companies where the technical guys don't
get much shares (Amazon, Facebook, etc…), and I must say I begin to have
doubts.

What do you think of:

\- the right repartition of equity

\- how I should react

Thanks :)

~~~
pcarolan
He sounds like a jerk and you're going to have to spend a lot of time with
him. Walking away should be an option.

~~~
Labo333
I don't think he is a jerk, but must admit I was surprised by his reaction.

I wouldn't entrust him with the business part is he was too soft either, so I
guess it is ok.

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tboyd47
It sounds like a very UNbalanced partnership. The financing is coming all from
one side and the work (assuming your startup is software related) will be done
on the other.

He is being truthful with you when he says 33/66 is a lot for you. IIRC the
split between Jobs and Woz was much more lopsided than that.

If I were you, since he has access to money, I would just enter into it as
Employee #1. Ask for a decent yearly rate, a C-level job title, and stock
options. Set your hours firmly and don't overwork. Work for the long haul.

~~~
Labo333
In fact, it is possible for us to find money in a lot of other places, and I
think his work is at least as important as mine. It would be easy for us to
get 500k from external investors.

Plus, I'm not in need for money, so I don't care about a rate. For the moment
he is CEO and I'm Chief Scientist.

That is why I don't think the money is the big deal here, and even he didn't
talk much about it because he knows that.

It is a software related company, but much more a scientific company (about
cryptography and machine learning).

Yeah the split between Jobs and Woz was one of his arguments, but do you think
it was fair? Would you do the same as Woz?

~~~
tboyd47
As technologists we are always in this weird state of being seen as both
invaluable and replaceable. You are doing him a favor by working with him for
free for this long.

