Ask HN: Start-up Equity For UX co-founder

[arjunkumar]

I am currently building a mobile app with the help of two friends (One UX guy and one coder). These guys are working on deferred payment basis and will help me transition to an in-house team. (They will not transition to a full time position)

Plan is to get a working prototype and initial customers + seed funding from a known angel. Then bring on a UX person as a co-founder. How much equity should I be giving out to this person? P.S : There will be no salary initially.

[formosa]

If you've developed it to the point of product and seed funding, then you can justify holding out equity pretty easily. I would suggest that you offer a third. You need to be generous because if they're going to be a co-founder then you're going to need them to have a honest stake in the company otherwise they won't take it seriously.

It might suck because you feel that you did all the work, but you're going to need a long term view.

I had a hard time accepting this in my past experience partnering with people so the venture eventually failed.

[arjunkumar]

Thanks for your views formosa.

What if this person comes on board just for UI/UX? How much would you give him?

My problem is that this UX person will come through references. And its risky to make someone co-founder (i.e. give a reasonable stake in the company) without having worked with them in the past.

Thanks Arjun