Is being offered 23% of a company an insult as a partner in a start up? I am responsible for building and designing the entire web app, coding the Frontend, backend, and digitizing all requirements for our proof of concept. My partner found me on LinkedIn. Its his idea, he will be running business functions, marketing, client onboarding, and he has a few real clients to do a trial run with. We’ve been working together for two months in a trial period and now we want to write up contract. How do I value myself?! ……This is my first start up !
Err, no. There’s the cofounders, the investors (may or may not be the same people, may change each round of investment), the future employee options, the vesting schedule…, the dilution agreements that happen at each investment round, what happens to vested and unvested stock at each investment round, cliff agreements, parachute agreements, and that’s just off the top of my head. 23% can mean so many different things based on the fine print.