Re:Ask HN: How much equity should I ask for?
by eggbrain on Wednesday June 08, 2011 @05:23PM
(#2635095)
For me, I would say > 20% would be a "co-founder" status. Anything less and it sounds like you are more an employee than anything else.
It may be his idea, he may have even created the prototype, but a prototype is not a final product. If you have to trash the prototype and work from scratch, you'll be putting a lot of work into something that is barely yours.
I wouldn't, however, ask for >30%. If he's gotten into an accelerator and programmed a prototype, he's probably been working on the project for quite some time (a year or more). To ask for almost half of the equity would probably be too much.
It may be his idea, he may have even created the prototype, but a prototype is not a final product. If you have to trash the prototype and work from scratch, you'll be putting a lot of work into something that is barely yours.
I wouldn't, however, ask for >30%. If he's gotten into an accelerator and programmed a prototype, he's probably been working on the project for quite some time (a year or more). To ask for almost half of the equity would probably be too much.