Ask HN: How much equity should I give to a non techie founder?
What would be a reasonable amount of equity that I can offer him?
The long of it:
I am considering bringing in an old friend as a co-founder. These are the facts:
Though he had done quite a bit of programming on FORTRAN at university level (MS) he is not from IT background.
He has been a very good sounding board for many years for me and a source of lot of practical advice, including when I started my previous company.
He can be very straightforward (which is important) and tells me when I might be wrong.
He has got loads of practicality, good discipline with managing money and time, good at dealing with people, on all these accounts he is better than me.
He doesn't have people managing experience.
The idea is mine. Initially, I will be doing most of the development before I can bring in the employees of the older company. I am the one who is ready to bankroll the company to the extent I have to and am not expecting him to shell out any money.
The main reason I would like to bring him in is to avoid single perspective decision mistakes, speed up my decision making process (which is lot easier when I have somebody to talk to and understands the stuff) and speed up implementation by splitting up non-technical tasks (inlcuding managing employees, resources and project timelines)
9 comments
[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 24.4 ms ] threadTowards the end of your post you say he'll be managing employees, yet it sounds like you don't have any, and he doesn't have any experience managing staff anyway. Managing people isn't something that you just pick up on the job.
To be honest, it sounds like you're looking to get a mate involved...just because he's your mate. Don't get me wrong, that CAN work (my co-founder is a friend, but he's also the designer "ying" to my developer "yang"). I'd just be concerned that your mate doesn't appear to have any relevant skills to your business beyond being good with money a being good listener. These may be important things in the long run, but when you're trying to get a product to market, you need your co-founder doing everything that you can't.
I don't mean to be an alarmist, and I may be making some incorrect assumptions...but I wouldn't be offering any equity to someone who isn't going to CREATE equity.
Ideally I would want somebody who could bring strong readily usable skillsets. Two other long time friends-advisors (one in software marketing, one a software whiz) both have heavy constraints against making a risky move such as joining a startup.
I have some very strong strengths and some very strong weaknesses. The thought behind going for this friend is, if I can't find somebody I trust, who can bring strong strengths along with being able to counter my weaknesses, I might as well as bring somebody in who can counter my weaknesses. And this guy can do at least that, if he is willing to join and really contribute.
Unfortunately, one of my weaknesses is building rapport quickly with people:). I am working on it, but can't bank on becoming good at it fast enough to build a good team quickly.
(Typical advisor compensation is 0.1%-2%, depending on the stage and the value provided.)
He doesn't seem like a right advisor/mentor. If was one then he would have advised you right away that he is not a right fit for this job.
Thats true, I would not be able to afford to spoon feed him about what he can, he should or how he can do different things. I would have to spend more or less full time on development, finances and customers. He would have to be a self starter and go about trusting his own instincts, if he joins this company. But currently it looks like I have more trust on his instincts than he has on them (at leaast with respect to this venture)