On: I'm Peter Roberts, immigration attorney who does work for YC and startups. AMA

[suryacom]

Then it is a non-starter, right? If you are starting a company, then you do have controlling stake.

[mattieuga → suryacom]

Just needs to be <50%

[mehta → mattieuga]

yeah, this is my line of thought as well. But it gets complicated when there are two co-founds in the same boat :)

[MacsHeadroom → mehta]

[Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I am especially not your lawyer, or anyone else's. This is not legal advise. I recommend anyone in this situation retain an attorney and ask them for legal advise on this subject.]

Get an angel check. One share in a billion leaves neither cofounder with a controlling interest.

For what it's worth, I recommend giving more like 2% for a sole angel, assuming their contribution runs little further than satisfying this control problem. But technically speaking, whatever somebody agrees to should solve the control problem.

[mehta → suryacom]

not if there are multiple co-founders and possibly some investors involved.