Business & Startupsequity-splitco-founderslegal

Co-Founder Equity Split Negotiator Framework

Guides early-stage co-founders through a fair, dynamic equity split discussion based on contribution weight.

Use Case

Before signing founder agreements to prevent future ownership disputes and alignment issues.

AI Prompt

Act as a neutral startup mediator and legal-operational advisor. Help us design a framework for a fair co-founder equity split. Here are the co-founders: [Insert Founder 1 Role & Contributions] and [Insert Founder 2 Role & Contributions]. Generate a customized assessment questionnaire and weighting system based on the Slicing Pie methodology. Break down equity allocation into 5 core categories: Ideation/IP, Capital Contribution, Time/Labor Commitment, Network/Rolodex, and Risk Taken (e.g., leaving a high-paying job). Provide a structured scoring system for each category to help us objectively calculate our relative value, and suggest a vesting schedule to protect the company long-term.

How to Use

1List all founders, their roles, and estimated contributions in the brackets.
2Submit the prompt to generate the structured framework.
3Sit down with your co-founders and fill out the scoring categories together.

Example Output

To split equity between founder one who is a technical engineer and founder two who is a business development lead, evaluate these factors. Assign weights where labor gets forty percent, capital gets twenty percent, original IP gets ten percent, risk gets twenty percent, and network gets ten percent. Since founder one builds the product full-time without pay, they score high on risk and labor. Founder two secures early clients and brings initial funding, scoring high on capital and network. We recommend a four-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff to protect both parties.

Related Prompts

View All

Co-Founder Equity Split Calculator

Provides a logical framework and recommended equity split percentages for co-founders based on contribution and risk.

co-founderequity-splitstartup-law

View Prompt

Startup Legal Risk and Compliance Guard

Flags primary legal risks, intellectual property issues, and compliance steps for a new startup's business model.

legalcomplianceintellectual-property

View Prompt

The Blue Ocean Strategy Validator

Evaluates your startup idea against the Blue Ocean Strategy framework, helping you identify uncontested market space and create new demand.

blue-oceanmarket-validationstartup-strategy

View Prompt