Would you give 50% of the ownership of your idea-stage startup to someone who can build it entirely
Alexander Isora 🦄
33 replies
I was asked an exciting question. I personally would not agree to delegate building Unicorn Platform to someone else because I'm too bad at delegating tasks and management. Curious what others think 🙂
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Graeme@graeme_fulton
Prototypr
I find ideas come as you build it, so whoever is helping to build it is gonna evolve the ideas, so yeah starting at 0 from an idea, sounds fine
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Prototypr
@alexanderisora haha yeah I think there is not a time when we don't need help 😅 , but by the time you find the right person and delegate the tasks , you can make it.........the trap lol
Unicorn Platform
@graeme_fulton that is a good point. I find inspiration during building too. Yet, a thought "oh gosh I need help" comes up frequently 😅
Ceeya AI - Personal Brand Builder
@graeme_fulton I guess this is with an assumption that the builder will be around for the iteration.
Prototypr
@djteknokid yeah, that they will be a co founder
Web3 Seems Legit
If they can build it entirely, and I need to spend no time on the business - absolutely. I am saving myself years of hard work, struggle and pain lol. Plus, it allows me to work on the next big thing.
ClearList
And think the other way around: would you take 50% ownership of an idea-stage startup of someone who can't build it but you can? :)
Unicorn Platform
Ceeya AI - Personal Brand Builder
@satwaya @alexanderisora Sales, Marketing, product, & UX are figured out, then what a deal.
WorkHub
If you decide to give 50% of your idea-stage startup to someone who can build it entirely, then you need to ensure that the person is trustworthy. You need to make sure they will not take your idea and use it without your permission. So, try to keep the rights to sell your idea-stage startup if you choose to do so.
Absolutely!
ChatPdf.so: Chat with pdf
This is not about percentage. It is about how much dedicated your cofounder would be to work on your startup with you. Do not split equity based on what a person brings on table, but rather split equity according to on how much equity when you give them then they would be willing to commit their time and energy into your startup. 100% of nothing is nothing. Best equity split is 50-50. Even if other cofounder brings less value to the table than you. See this video by ycombinator
It's tough. I once saw a quote: Don't outsource your dream.
Right now, I'm building my dream, and I wouldn't outsource it because I enjoy the process of building it.
However, I would give 50% to someone with the skills I don't have if it came to it at some point.
Unicorn Platform
@phillipstemann you are at a risk of not building anything at all. Motivation is an exhaustible resource. The joy may go away if you do not see any results for too long.
I'm sorry for sounding pessimistic. I'm trying to be realistic 😅
@phillipstemann If the person is skilled enough to make a build for you, then 50% sounds fine. It will be a one time investment for you.
An idea is really easy to come up with. If that's all I had, I'd be surprised if I could get anyone to build it even for 100% ownership.
Unicorn Platform
@jesse_ezell you also need to market the product and lead the project. That is a lot of work too.
Ceeya AI - Personal Brand Builder
Ideas are dime and dozen. Making and building the product is not even the hardest part either, the real battles are in the launching, iterating, and marketing. If you are going to have a long term relationship with the builder, 50 sounds right, if not, no for both parties.
If you aren't able at all to build it yourself, it's quite a good deal IMO since execution is worth far more than an idea.
if someone is giving me 50% just because it was my idea, I don't think that person is capable of making good choice ideas are one of the easiest pseudo commodity.
Idea is not enough to achieve anything... Yeah it's important to think and find a solution about problem. However, if idea owners would not take an action about solution, dream won't come true.
There is a difference between being entrepreneur and wantrepreneur :)
If the person building understands the vision and compliements you. Yes, definitely
NVSTly: Social Investing
Would need to actually asset their value for the long term, quality & speed of progress, etc.
It all depends on the person who is building it. If they don't contribute to the product past the initial build out, they should not be an owner. If they don't share the vision for the startup and if you don't have a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities + a buy out clause, then they should not be owners.
If you don't execute on the idea you have 100% of nothing vs 50% of something, but in these cases you should really exchange something else (money, services, lending them your car on weekends, etc.) for the build out of your product initially instead of giving ownership to the best coder/builder. Just because they are good at building doesn't necessarily mean they will be good at leading.
You can still give them equity if you want, but not 50% from the very beginning. "If you build it, they may not come", you will also need to market this, which takes money, so would that be another 20/30% equity? What about customer support? Sourcing? Sales? Would you be giving out equity for each one of these later? What if you need to raise money and the builder doesn't agree to give some of his equity up for the investors?
Think long term and if you are going to give away 50%, make sure it is because that person is the best partner in the long run.
Most good ideas are born out of collaboration. You should be open to collaboration because that is the fastest way to success.
Ideas are a-plenty. It's who can do the grind to make them happen that takes the cake. If I can't put the execution down, I don't think I can retain equity (unless I'm paying adequate salaries, which is also a way of getting things done). IMO, what separates founders from thinkers is the ability to get shit done.
AI Link Manager
I am not sure if 50% is the right number.
However, I want to call out one thing - The bottleneck in startups is always on execution, never on ideas.
Hence someone actually executing the right way adds tremendous value.
Next line is brutal prioritization when you have more ideas than you can execute.
I think it really depends on the level of expertise that you bring. If someone is able to build it but you have overall commercial skillsets to help bring it to life than I think are entitled to more equity.
It's depends on the person. Assuming they can "build it entirely", the right person would:
💗 Be passionate about the problem being solved.
👓 Resonate with the current vision and brings their own perspective.
🙌 Understand and value the Business Development efforts of the other no-technical founder(s).