10% of nothing is nothing

Absolutely the Fuck not. Get cash. Do you believe this founder?

If this founder had exits under their belt, then maybe. Otherwise vash

If they’ve got no product or revenue, then it should be an equal split with equal dilution.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The real work is getting a product to market

It depends on what you’re doing for him and what he’s doing for the company.

If this is just an “idea” and he wants you to do all the upfront work with no compensation for only 10% run for the hills.

50/50. Unless they have some patented technology or IP you can’t get anywhere else.

Okay what are they contributing for 90%? Or is it just hey man can you build me this app and give me 90% of it?

Messaged you.

If its on top of getting paid for your time, it may be something to consider!

If you’re building everything on your own (sounds like you are), it doesn’t matter if they came up with the idea, if they already have designs and mockups, and if they already have potential customers lined up.

The minimum you should look for here is 30-40%, and even then you need to ensure they’re doing a few things, like actually putting in some of their funds into the launch (bootstrapping is fine but you still need some $ for domains, hosting and server costs, and some initial ads), and spending just as much time if not more time than you on getting sales, customers, and market research as you are coding.

You aren’t mentioning what else the startup has or will be contributed by the founders.

If it’s only you putting the work and there’s no other contribution, and you get 10% equity, someone is stealing 90% equity from you, you would just work on your own and have 100% equity.

So focus on what the other founder already has or what they are willing to put, is it money? an idea? exactly how much money? How advanced is the idea, do they have any documents? specifications? market research?

Quantify both sides of the offer then compare them, if your work for 6 months is worth 1/9 of a half assed idea written on a napkin and maybe 100$ of investment but without any actual commital, then you probably need to reevaluate your self worth.

Maybe it’s actually a very advanced idea with loads of documents and research and specifications and previous work done, and maybe he has a fund upwards of ten thousand dollars. Get all of those facts precisely, then and only then will you be able to calculate and commit to equity and time contracts.

As it stands, as someone said, 10% is nothing of nothing.

If someone just point blank offered you 10% of equity in exchange for nothing, then I wouldn’t even consider doing business with that person, no renegotiating, just flat out refusal.

Only do it if you want the experience, because it’s likely you’ll never get paid anything on an equity deal. But since you’re building the initial product, it should be 50/50.

98% of equity is worthless. 2% of equity will be worth anything with in 10 years. .01% will be worth a meaningful amount that you can use for let’s say a house down payment.

Let that guide your decision making.

You 5 or 10% of zero is still zero.

Don’t do it, it will never make any money and you will waste a lot of time

Are you quitting your job? Is he? Has he built anything yet? Mock-ups? Prototypes? Real product?

Do you know this person? Do you trust them?

Do you see yourself quitting your cushy Fortune 500 job to make half of what you’re making now to support the business? That could be 6 months or a year from now.

Do you see yourself working on this for 5-7 years with this person?

Are they taking the 10% cause really you are building the whole thing and what they contribute a future asset ?