| Many people in the comments seem to confuse what it means to be a co-founder, have ownership of a company, and have control over that company's direction. - If a founder sets up a company with other people, they are both a founder and a co-founder [source](https://www.startups.com/library/expert-advice/startup-found...). It is inaccurate to say that OP is not a co-founder but rather an employee because they have less equity. It both violates the commonly accepted definition of co-founder AND if true would mean that there's no such thing as a co-founder unless equity were perfectly divided. OP is a co-founder. What it means to be an employee has its own specific meaning, too. - In the case of startups, ownership is best determined by setting percentage ownership between founders along with a vesting schedule (i.e. when each founder will receive those shares). In OP's case, their co-founder was provided more equity. - Control of a company, either direct or indirect, is determined by voting shares. These are not always the same as shares, but in the early stages generally are. Unless OP has the same number of voting share by way of dividing board seats equally, we can assume that all share in this company are voting shares. Therefore, co-founder likely has a controlling interest. Therefore, OP is a co-founder. They do have ownership of the company. They likely do not have control of the company. It would be very helpful to keep this in mind when offering advice on how to approach the situation. I'm sure there are quite a few gaps in what I've written above, I appreciate any feedback or input! |