Critical Questions For Your Startup Co-Founders

OnStartUps, a community forum for entrepreneurs, recently posted their Top Ten list on important questions startup co-founders should ask each other. I found it something not extensively covered elsewhere, so here it goes:

• How should we divide the shares? There are actually multiple parts to this. Here, I’m primarily interested in the economic impact. Basically, the question is really simple: Who gets what percentage of the company? This question is often the most difficult to answer (and the right answer is rarely “divide them equally amongst the co-founders”).
• How will decisions get made? This is often tied to the number of shares (…), but not necessarily. You can have voting and non-voting shares. You can setup a board. You’ll need to decide what kinds of decisions get made by the board, and which ones don’t. Common areas to address are decisions around capitalization, executive hiring/firing, share issuance (dilution) and M&A (…).
• What happens if one of us leaves the company? Though it may seem like a bad idea to be talking about this when you’re starting the company – it’s not. In the evolution of any startup, there will be good times and bad times and there will always be times when one or more co-founders are simply not happy and not committed. You should decide how to treat this situation early (…).
• Can any of us be fired? By whom? For what reasons? Yes, that’s right. Even co-founders can be terminated. Too many people mix the notion of being a shareholder in a startup and having an operating role. These two things should be thought of as somewhat separate and distinct. The company should have a mechanism for gracefully terminating the operating role of a co-founder if that’s the right thing to do (…).
• What are our personal goals for the startup? Though this can change over time, its helpful to at least get a sense of what each of the co-founders wants to get from the company. If you have one co-founder that wants to build a sustainable business that is spinning off cash and run it forever and another one wants to shoot for high growth and some type of liquidity, it’s better to get that out in the open early and talk it through.
• Will this be the primary activity for each of us? Lots of co-founder conflict can stem from misunderstandings around how committed everyone is. Will one of the co-founders be keeping her day job until the company gets off the ground? Will one be working on another sideline business?
• What part of our plan are we each unwilling to change? Not all startups need to change their plans during the course of their evolution. Just the ones that want to survive and succeed. Having said that, there may be elements of the plan that you don’t want to change (…).
• What contractual terms will each of us sign with the company? One of the best examples of this is a non-compete agreement. Will each of the co-founders be signing some sort of contract with the company (outside of the shareholder agreement)? (…).
• Will any of us be investing cash in the company? If so, how is this treated? It is very likely that one or more co-founders will be putting in some cash in the early stages of the company. It is critical to decide up front how this cash will be treated (…).
• What will we pay ourselves? Who gets to change this in the future? This can be a touchy issue. Risk tolerance varies by individual, and it is a good idea to factor this into determining the compensation plan for the founders (…).

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