[zn44]

I've joined a start-up as third co-founder and agreed to only 10% equity, regretted it few years in. From now on I'd not accept any offer that's not equal split between funders (few % difference at most)

For your situation if they'd be more engaged I'd suggest equal equity split what you describe sounds like normal investment albeit with fairly hands on investor. They should be getting 20%, 30% if you feel generous.

[torynoter2832]

May I ask if the startup succeeded and why do you regret?

If the startup failed, why do you care how much you owned? 100% of 0 is 0.If the startup succeed, you probably made very good money regardless.

Second question: I started with looking at stuff similar to how you see it. Then I talked to someone who tried to found a startup and wasted 18 months without getting investment or real revenue. He's point is that we only see in the media the people who succeeded, but there are many people who fail even before doing anything.

The arrangement I have with them is giving me a true shot at my dream. Fair or not, I'm going to learn a lot, get the money and support I need to try to build my vision and if successful make a lot of money (probably >$10M even if exit is modest).

So, his suggestion was, go for it.

[altdataseller]

Because if your stake is too low, you quickly run into fairness issues. Should i work as hard as my partners who have more equity? Maybe i shouldnt work as hard. But then your startup will be less likely to succeed

[zn44]

The startup is still going 5 years in. We had great run intially up to raising series A in 2019. Then covid hit us hard we had to lay off most of the team. We are growing slowly again but not quite out of the pit

Now one of my co-foundes pushed out other one last year and now is quitting himself with most of his equity vested.

At many points in the last few years my decisions to stay in the business were much harder because of unbalanced equity. Running a business is hard, hardest thing I've ever done. Last thing you want is feeling someone is going to profit from your effort and you get nothing from it, it's especially risky with your setup because your VC friends might eventually get pref shares. And don't count on your personal relationship with them, end of the day they are running business and have obligations to their investors

Finally raising seed money is not the success, building product people want with supportive business model is, running 18 months with your seed money and failing anyway doesn't sound much better than 18 without investment. I don't have that much experience in investing but I'd also think that cap table like this would make getting more money from other investors hard

[xbar]

This. I took a too-small percentage of my first startup. It haunted me for a very long time.

My next was a 30% stake among 3. Much better.