11/16/2004

Equity Distribution in Startups

This article from Venture Coach provides guidance on the anwers to the following questions:

How should we divide equity among the founders?
We have 5 founders. What should we do?
How much of the company will the investors need to own?
What equity should part-time contributors expect?
How can we increase the valuation of the company?
What does ownership look like after the first round?
What does the ownership look like at IPO? How much does the CEO have, etc.?

As the article notes: "there are no hard and fast rules. Equity is negotiated on a case-by-case basis, which makes it hard to give any generalizations."

Via TJ's Weblog