Ask HN: Advice on a Hard Decision as First Time Co-Founder

1 point

10 years ago

Hello everyone, first time co-founder here. I'm at a point where I have to make a hard decision in my startup. I've been in a position where I felt like I kept giving and giving (to be fair, a lot of us felt that) but now comes a decision to give up something again, but which the result may have bigger repercussions in the future that are unclear to me.

Note, this post was cut short due to 2000 char limit, my full "write-up" here: http://pastebin.com/fjQfiqp8

Background: In my startup of 5-6, we have a founder (CEO) and I'm the co-founder (CTO). So far, I've worked on this project for about 9 months and I do everything technical (server setup, back-end [our core technology], front-end web design).

Problem: We need to make payroll two more times before we can close a large seed round which will put to rest money problems for a long duration, but the problem here is getting these last two equity-for-cash lots before we get the big relief.

Now with options running out, one particular solution came up. Two contributors to our startup offered to put up the next lot, but in exchange they want "co-founder" status on top of the equity. What I want to avoid is to have our say and leverage in the company not be proportionate to effort level put in when these two new "co-founders" are put into play. Now the founder is okay with this because in the end, he still has the final say on everything (and it's his wife), but as an "outside player" I have to go to bat for myself and make sure I don't get screwed by letting these decisions go too easily.

TL;DR As core co-founders, will giving up additional "co-founder" titles have potentially nasty consequences in the future (when everybody has their own opinions)?

If there's anything else I can clear up, please let me know. Thank you for any advice or input!

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