Do I need to have my stock vest if I am a solo founder?

I want to incorporate my company as a Deleware C-corp. I am a solo founder, at the moment.

Will investors want me to be on a vesting schedule even though I am a solo founder? If so what would the appropriate vesting schedule look like in my case? I have already been working on the idea for almost a year...

Lastly, if I decided to have all my equity vest on day one. Eventually down the line if I get investment can I retroactively take equity away from my self and then set up a vesting schedule to satisfy an investor?

Thanks in advance everyone !

3 comments

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wmf 4y ago ↗

Vesting is a way to show investors that you're committed to the company (although the LIFO rule mitigates most principal-agent problems). Changing things later costs more billable hours, so you're probably better off just doing the vesting now. If you're a year in that means you're already ~25% vested and you can add something like ~6% every quarter.

ghostmatt 4y ago ↗

Thanks! What are LIFO rules exactly ?

__d 4y ago ↗

There's no need for a vesting schedule for solo founders.

When/if you get investors, you'll usually issue more shares. Those might be made available to you as options (with a vesting schedule) at that time.

(Caveat: IANAL, etc)