| You can get more than €60k. I am not a lawyer, but I've been in a similar situation recently. --- We were 50/50 partners; I was technical, he was business + provided the financing. In 18 months we built valuable IP, but it wasn't ready for external use. Our relationship broke down over financial conflict and diverging visions for the future. He is secure financially and could afford to take a longer term view, whereas I needed to validate product market fit quickly and start generating revenue. Our conflict boiled down to our different circumstances and the way that we could each afford to approach the business. I still liked working with him, despite that. I realised that I didn't have much leverage from the business and financial perspective, but I knew that I was the most capable person to continue to develop the product, and that he valued working with me and my time highly. The only leverage I had was the option to continue to develop and grow the product. I offered to sell my equity to him, and transition into a consulting role. In the process, I tripled my annual salary, reduced my working days, cut travel, and eliminated the stress associated with needing the product to succeed yesterday. I also received a modest payout for the value of my equity. Our personal relationship immediately improved. It took a while to work out the details, especially since we were both apprehensive due to the breakdown in communication, but now we are both very happy. --- Your business is already structured in a way that gives you little leverage (49/51 ownership and reduced voting rights). But you are obviously valuable to the organisation due to your demonstrated capability to bring in grants and tenders. You are at your cofounder's mercy in terms of what they're willing to pay for your equity, since they are the only buyer. If you just walk away, you minimise your leverage. So I'd encourage you to dig deeper into the nature of your conflict. Can you decompose the conflict into parts and understand them separately? Is there a world where you slowly transition out of the organisation? This might result in a fairer payout than the simple value of your equity. For example, if you were willing to commit to working remotely on the project for 6 or 12 months, even at reduced hours, you could significantly improve your value over that time by commanding a higher consultancy rate. Your cofounder justifies this by paying you for your time (which they value), rather than your equity (which they can lowball). You justify this by strategising that it's a mature way to extract the most value from your equity and committed time, and view it as an amortised payment for your equity. |