Nathu: Startup co-founders should generally split equity more or less equally
Kirsty Nathoo · YC Panel at Female Founders Conference 2015 · Y Combinator · Feb 23, 2015 · at 8:31
Speaking at Y Combinator's Female Founders Conference 2015, YC partner Kirstie Nathu addresses how early-stage co-founders should approach dividing company equity.
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“We generally say that equity should be split more or less equally between co-founders. That doesn't necessarily mean exactly equally, But we generally find that where there is an equity split that's very mismatched, you know, one founder has 90% and the other founder has 10%, it actually seems that that causes a lot of problems as you then going through the, you know, through the life cycle of the company, where you do, you're both working extremely long hours, you're thinking about it 24 seven, you know, talking about it over dinner and you know, it can cause problems, because the person who only has 10% is thinking, well, why am I doing this for such a small percentage of the upside compared to the other person? So it can really cause problems down the line.”
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