What is a minimum YC application?

[dynode]

A friend and I are submitting a YC application and are starting to discuss things like equity, governance and so on.

What is the minimum we need to figure out before applying?

If accepted, we'd like to get as much input as possible about those decisions from the mentors at YC.. but we don't want to get dismissed because our corporate structure is half-baked.

We're not hopeless to the point that we can't figure out things like founder equity, but we're interested about things like alternate advisory boards, and don't want to make a misstep.

As a bonus question, it's unclear if our startup would be best positioned as a for or non-profit company. Is this a decision we could delay until after acceptance?

[outericky]

Corporate structure can be figured out later, but if there are 2 of you, agreeing on a 50/50 split is your best bet...

Deciding if you are for or non-profit can be decided later (add that to the application that you are deciding), but choosing non-profit might help your cause.

[dynode]

I agree 50/50 split is best, I agree with most of this [1] article (recently posted on HN) about founder equity.

I also agree that choosing non-profit will most likely help our cause, it would take the company in a different direction. This is something we'd prefer to discuss with smarter folks (hence the desire to delay some of these decisions).

[1] <http://www.gravitycomputing.co.nz/joels-totally-fair-method-...

[alain94040]

I'll keep dissenting: 50/50 is usually not the right solution. Please google founder equity calculator, and use it to start a conversation about who does what and who is committed.

For the YC application, just say that you are not incorporated yet and that you are thinking of splitting 50/50, that should be good enough for them to review.