From my understanding it would be equity. I'm not sure what the valuation would be. I do know between the 4 partners, they've invested a little over 100K.
The website is the company. I took the project from an idea to reality, so over the last year I've learned their industry inside and out.
In addition to all of the technical stuff, I have handled all marketing for the website which has resulted in visitors and revenue. I also do lots of strategy planning for ways to grow the business.
I don't see them hiring any high-level positions in the next 18 months. I suspect in the next year one of the partners will move to the CEO role and I'll move to a CTO role.
The amount they've invested is some what irrelevant, except to maybe establish a minimum valuation.
I figured that the website was the company, but thanks for confirming. You also should establish how many other people in their world could have done what you did (and be realistic here). The less uniqueness you bring to the scenario, the less valuable you are overall. This is simply a datapoint.
On the plus side, it does sound like you are a valuable player to the company.
You probably do NOT want equity though. Equity has immediate value, which means you will have to pay capital gains taxes on that. If the company is valued at $500K and you get a 10% stake, that 10% is worth $50K. Are you prepared to pay taxes on that amount? Options are probably better. (IANAL, and this is a gross summarization).
You mention there are 4 partners. Let's even say that you all are equal (and in reality from what you described I think they would value their stake above yours). If you each got 10%, that sucks up 50% of the stock and will (again, summarization) make raising any future capital more difficult.
It also sounds from your other posts that you are somewhat very green to this kind of negotiating, and that can hurt you. I would spend a LOT of time googling and reading about topics like equity vs. options and golden parachutes and the like.
Based on the few words that you've posted, I would probably look at something like:
5% stake as stock options. 1 year cliff, 4 year vest
110% market rate salary
Some sort of MBO bonus (either on top of the salary or a 90% salary and MBO plan to get you to 105-110%)
Contract assuring you 6 months severance plus 1 month for every year of employment upon termination for any reason (basic golden parachute and not terribly uncommon).
10% seems high for stock. 5% is probably more realistic. In any case you'll likely end up with no more than 75% of what any of the founders have allocated to themselves.
Given the situation you should get a salary slightly above market. This is "fair" for everyone.
The contract would be a negotiating point and you'll probably have a hard time with that one. But I would personally probably still ask for it.
A lot of this hinges on how experienced the founders are all well. If they are also new to this they may be offended and think you are over-reaching. If they've done this before, probably not. I'm also assuming that you carry yourself day-to-day in a manner that is commensurate with my suggestions. If you act like a child and have a cube full of action figures, it's harder to negotiate...
When you say "first and only technical employee" ... should I take that to mean that the four founders are non-technical? I assume so, if you'll be the CTO and one of the partners will be the CEO.
Based on that assumption, and what you said about marketing, planning, and "the website is the company" ... why do you need to be an employee? Why not just compete?
This is most likely WAY too high.
Are they offering you equity or stock options? These are very different things.
What is the value of the company (even if approximate)?
What value does the website and this position in general (ie: not you, just any random webmin) add to the companies value?
What do you think you bring to the table over and above a web developer/techie in general?
What other high-level adds do you see them reasonably hiring in the next 18 months?