[fortydegrees]

This seems like the most realistic and likely answer. My co-founder hasn't really been budging so far and I feel like they don't fully understand the situation. They think that because it was their idea that they are entitled to a lot more than me.

One issue for me is that I don't have that much faith in them being able to execute on the company vision by themself, e.g. they don't want to monetize right now or do a revenue split for reasons I'm unclear about, which makes the practicality of monthly payments tricky.

[rexreed]

Take it from me, a negotiated buy-out is the way to go. I had to buy out a former partner and negotiated a payment over 12 months. It worked out for everyone.

Current valuation should be valuation at the time of the investment multiplied by a small growth factor (1.5x perhaps).

Your stake is the amount you would have owned as of the first cliff (and not any sooner), which is 10% after the investment round.

if the company was valued at $1M at investment, then it would be worth maybe $1.5M at time of the 1yr cliff given the growth factor.

Your 10% of that is $150,000. The company should pay you $12,500 per month for 12 months to fully buy you out. And the company should time the payments to reduction in your equity. If they speed up payments, it speeds up the buy out. If they slow it down, it slows down the buy out.

You should also renegotiate any non-compete.

[sjg007]

Have them pay you with a loan and then start a competitor.