Am I a co-founder?

AAnonymous ·July 10, 2017 ·4 answers

I joined a startup in the 2nd month as marketing consultant and two months later turned down a full time job offer to work full time with this startup, for a lesser salary, and the promise of 5% equity at the end of one year.

We have not signed a contract yet. However since joining, I have restructured the entire revenue plan of the company, basically repositioning it from an affiliate/influencer marketing platform, to a branded product line which is now attractive to the investors I’ve been speaking to.

I feel I have turned the company into something that will become a multi-million dollar umbrella brand and think I deserve a much bigger slice of the company (ownership vs equity), and the title of co-founder. As opposed to someone who can build the company and a year later get let go and bought out before we really gain revenue traction.

Would love thoughts and feedback on this, and how to approach the subject with the founder.

4 answers from the community

AAnonymous· Jul 11, 2017

Think from it from the viewpoint of the founder. can you convince him that you will be a valuable member going forward and he'll need your marketing chops in order to really execute on the vision or was your value "turning around" the idea. If it's he latter there's a good chance you won't be "rewarded" since you've already done what he contracted you to do.

But if you can convince him that since you were able to restructure your idea and it's only the beginning of your partnership then sure you could renegotiate your situation into a cofounder

AAnonymous· Jul 11, 2017

Thank you for your input! I was actually hired to be full time permanent (contract), so my role is executing the vision, but I've scaled up the company strategy to the point where it's very different than the original idea, and investors can now understand the concept and revenue stream. Now I'll spend the next year executing, bringing in investors, marketing, PR, leading web and social media teams, and planning and bringing our first product line to market. This includes reaching out to all my contacts including investors. So basically I'd be putting all my eggs (industry knowledge, contacts, ideas) into this one basket with not much assurance and that doesn't feel like a smart idea unless I'm made co-founder and have a bigger portion of the company..

AAnonymous· Jul 13, 2017

I think you're answering your own question. In the end, in only matters what will make you feel happy. Just talk to the person, find some sort of middle ground that you can be happy with for the long term. If you have the title and equity in the back of your mind it's only going to get worse as time goes on. Handle it now.

AAnonymous· Jul 14, 2017

Absolutely! Handle it now. I trusted my co-founders and they booted me out a year later. Huge mess. Nothing was ever signed. You need either a term sheet and/or an operating agreement, executed. Be prepared to walk. Better sooner than later.

Am I a co-founder?

4 answers from the community

More Questions

I’m a software engineer at a startup, and I’m clueless about how to get a date. What should I do?

I’m tired of technology

How horrific is it to realize the tech accelerator manager who sexually assaulted a founder might be the one from your program?

How to deal with the impostor syndrome?