I (and my other partner) do value reputation and overall I'm inclined to roll with this.
The only counterpoint is that the departing co-founder really didn't live up to his end of the bargain. Work was low output and quality and this isn't in retrospect. It was like the fellow started crumbling almost from day one & then, the obvious inadequacy of his efforts just sort of piled back on in feedback loop.
So while I feel sorry for the fellow, honestly I do, I also don't really in any way feel that he lived up to any spirit of his commitment to us and his non-performance has hurt us in material ways.
It sort of feels like a choice of either being a jerk or a patsy.
No, we all came in under founders common stock. The partner in question took less equity as it was understood that he would have to draw something of a salary soon.
This wasn't because of lack of enthusiasm, just an economic reality for the guy.
But wow, as soon as we kicked off, it was like Jekyll/Hyde. And I've known/worked with this fellow for ~6 years, in fact I escorted him as first hire into his last gig where he did an outstanding job for several years.
When you say "we all came in under founders common stock", you mean that you WILL all have founders common stock once the incorporation papers are signed, yes? You said above that they weren't signed yet?
Founders should always have vesting. It is going to permanently screw up your company if this guy has some large percentage of the company and isn't a part of its success. Plus the rest of you should have vesting anyway in case another founder doesn't work out for whatever reason. Everyone should ALWAYS have vesting.
So my advice is that, if you haven't yet signed the papers, you should go back and put vesting on all of the founder's shares, including his, of course.
The only counterpoint is that the departing co-founder really didn't live up to his end of the bargain. Work was low output and quality and this isn't in retrospect. It was like the fellow started crumbling almost from day one & then, the obvious inadequacy of his efforts just sort of piled back on in feedback loop.
So while I feel sorry for the fellow, honestly I do, I also don't really in any way feel that he lived up to any spirit of his commitment to us and his non-performance has hurt us in material ways.
It sort of feels like a choice of either being a jerk or a patsy.