How can I avoid being screwed by my co-founder?
First, of course, you are already in trouble. If you are worried about your co-founder already, trouble will come.
The best way to mitigate founder economic issues is a longer vesting schedule. This may seem counter-intuitive at first. Isn’t a long (e.g., 5–10 year) vesting schedule “taking away” something you’ve earned?
No. What a long vesting schedule does is:
- Force both of you to go long or at least plan to.
- It aligns your interests.
- It forces you to have the tough conversations around if you have asymmetrical commitments.
- It means the more committed founder if there is one, is fairly incented to be so.
Try it. More here:
A Simple Commitment Test For You And Your Co-Founders | SaaStr
