I recently walked away from a potential startup because my non-technical partner (MBA ideas guy) wanted an 80/20 equity split in his favor. I was the first to broach the discussion and proposed 50/50. It was a severe misalignment in expectations, and this was after 3 months of meeting regularly to refine the idea and build out prototypes (read: I was building the prototypes).
My advice is to have this conversation with a potential business co-founder as early as possible to avoid wasted time. I could have saved myself months.
Look out for business guys who severely discount your value as a technical founder. Not saying they're all like this, but a really skewed equity split is typically a red flag.
My advice is to have this conversation with a potential business co-founder as early as possible to avoid wasted time. I could have saved myself months.
Look out for business guys who severely discount your value as a technical founder. Not saying they're all like this, but a really skewed equity split is typically a red flag.