Ask HN: Leaving as founder, what happens with equity?
I'm leaving a startup I founded due to disagreements over team/strategy. I worked on it for about half a year.
When we founded the company, there was prior work done, so we vested some equity up front to acknowledge that. Since that time, we've pivoted and also recently added team members. Now that I am leaving, the other founders are asking me to return some/most/all of the equity that was vested up front.
Is this reasonable? Do I have any obligation to return/surrender the vested equity?
Additionally, when I voiced objections to returning the vested equity, they brought up the fact that they may start a new company on the same idea and reset the entire equity metrics altogether. Is this common?
When we founded the company, there was prior work done, so we vested some equity up front to acknowledge that. Since that time, we've pivoted and also recently added team members. Now that I am leaving, the other founders are asking me to return some/most/all of the equity that was vested up front.
Is this reasonable? Do I have any obligation to return/surrender the vested equity?
Additionally, when I voiced objections to returning the vested equity, they brought up the fact that they may start a new company on the same idea and reset the entire equity metrics altogether. Is this common?