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I do a fair bit of investing and advising (both for startups and venture funds). If you are the founding CEO and you are looking to leave, the most likely outcome for a company that's early, and without any sort of product market fit, is the company will die. If you don't tell investors you want out, raise money, and leave shortly thereafter, you will burn all of those relationships and damage your reputation - it's a small world. It's also very disingenuous. Investors are betting on a committed team, that will go through hell and high-water to try to make this venture work - you already know you aren't that committed. And no one can be more committed than the CEO. If you can't get behind the pivot, the only other thing you can do is work with existing investors (at the seed stage this isn't really an option) or find a founder with previous exit, an EIR looking to step into a company, our an early employee / non CEO cofounder who exited and wants to do it again - and see if they'd be interested in the CEO role - It's a find your own replacement scenario. As far as your equity goes - you'll get diluted a bunch, but that's okay. It's going to be hard to hear, but no real investors will allow a non-participating, former founder, of a company that doesn't have a product or any traction (in your case your starting over with a pivot) to keep 10%. That's just too much of the cap table for not enough of a business / individual contribution. It's sucks, but if you stuck around and made it to a priced round, all of your equity would get clawed back and be subject to vesting again anyway (most likely). It's just the way it goes. You deserve something for your troubles and work, but it's not going to be 10%, not going to be anywhere close. Good luck. |