Loading...
Answers
MenuHow can i proceed with my startup with out a Tech Co-founder ?
Answers
Your question is clear and understandable, but you either need to pay for the services, or give away equity - talented and trustworthy people won't work for free - nor should they.
The only question that remains is how can you develop the platform while paying less or giving away less equity.
Answers:
1. found a co-founder whose only role is the development of the platform for a relatively low amount of equity and no voting/management rights.
2. Pay beginner programmers who are looking to gain experience (cheaper costs).
3. I know a development company that might be willing to create the platform for you in exchange for a relatively low amount of equity. Additionally, you can draft the agreement so that the equity is given in stages - based on the work that you do.
the only costs that you would have is for drafting the legal contract because they insist on having their lawyer do the legal work and he charges payment (half upfront and half after the work is complete). The programming company also offers a "buy-back" option - this means that if within x amount of months you want to buy back your shares, you can do so, but at double the value of the programming costs.
Let me know if this is relevant.
Good luck
I've successfully helped over 300 entrepreneurs, startups and businesses, and I would be happy to help you. After scheduling a call, please send me some background information so that I can prepare in advance - thus giving you maximum value for your money. Take a look at the great reviews I’ve received: https://clarity.fm/assafben-david
This is a common feeling at the very early stage of a new venture. In my view you have three options that each have pros and cons:
1. Role out with the limited platform that you have and do everything you possibly can to improve the platform yourself. If you can prove market validation, then you can much more easily raise money or create new partnerships that will enable you to pay developers, instead of giving away a huge chunk of equity.
2. Find the right person to truly partner with and be happy to share the equity with them, since in the long haul you believe you can build it together. If you do find yourself in this situation, then you still should protect yourself by having legal agreements in place that makes the equity slowly vest over time for your new partner in case they either don't meet your expectations or leave before you reach a successful outcome.
3. Hire on contract, meaning create clear terms that you will pay a certain amount for the developer(s) reaching specific benchmarks on the platform. I would not hire anyone hourly that you don't already trust. This option means you will not be stuck giving away equity or cash in the long-term, but gives you a way to get over this current barrier.
None of these options are perfect and in one way or another I've actually tried all of them with varying results, both while at a large company and starting my own site. The key is that you have to be realistic with yourself and your priorities. You need to either hustle much harder and feel comfortable rolling out a weaker platform temporarily (option 1), give away equity (option 2), or pay for development (option 3). In all cases there are ways to protect yourself against some of the risks, but there is no way to do this without taking some risks. If it was easy more people would be doing it!
Feel free to book a call with me to get into more specifics, I can help guide you through this situation.
Great question - here are a couple of comments to consider:
-Having a cofounder (tech or not) can be extremely useful even if it means losing some equity. When the startup ride gets tough, this will be your person and your main support system. Right now it might seem like you may not need that even in the future, but when you are burnt out, dealing with difficult investors or sluggish growth, you may want someone as "in it" as you are. From my personal experience I know I never thought I would get burnt out or down about my own idea but in the end it happens to everyone and your co-founder will pick you up in these moments. I originally took more equity than my first cofounder and have now adopted a 50/50 model most of the time, primary because of the importance of having someone else as invested in it as me. And also, having 100% of something that doesn't make it is meaningless in the end.
-If you have proved your concept in the local market, it may be a good time to raise a seed round that can help you cover the investment to create the bigger platform.
OPTIONS FOR PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
1. Outsource to a good company that can execute on your vision with limited funds and no equity. Keep in mind you will need upkeep and continued support over time (after the initial development), which means more $/time than the original quote and an continued relationship with the team
2. Build the platform on a sophisticated visual programming software where you can execute it yourself without code. I personally have used www.bubble.is and it is pretty awesome. You need to think like a programmer but you don't need to write code. You can do almost anything and it's easy to use. With this option you can manage changes and iterations yourself or with a freelancer.
3. Bring on a cofounder that you believe in and want to share equity with - someone who brings added value to your team and your product. You should want to share equity with this person bc they do something you cannot do and they are your partner!
Keep in mind that everyone who touches the code will have their own methods, and use their own preferred language etc. and this can make it hard to pass from team to team or person to person.
Happy to discuss further if I can be helpful!
Related Questions
-
What is the best way to write a cover letter to an early-stage startup?
Better than a cover letter is to actually proactively DO something to help them. It'll show them not only that you've researched them, but you're passionate about the startup and worth bringing on. A man got a job at Square early on for just making them a marketing video on his own (back before they had one). Since you're a web designer, design a stellar 1-pager that's targeting their message to a particular niche. Something they could use on social media or something. If they're like most startups, they're not interested in reading cover letters. They're interested in passionate individuals who can add value to the organization.AS
-
What legal precautions can I take to make sure nobody steals my startup idea?
I've discussed ideas with hundreds of startups, I've been involved in about a dozen startups, my business is at $1M+ revenue. The bad news is, there is no good way to protect ideas. The good news is, in the vast majority of cases you don't really need to. If you're talking to people about your idea, you could ask them to sign an NDA ("Non Disclosure Agreement"), but NDAs are notoriously hard to enforce, and a lot of experienced startup people wouldn't sign them. For example, if you asked me to sign an NDA before we discussed your Idea, I'd tell you "thanks, but no thanks". This is probably the right place though to give the FriendDA an honorable mention: http://friendda.org/. Generally, I'd like to encourage you to share your Ideas freely. Even though telling people an idea is not completely without risk, generally the rewards from open discussions greatly outweigh the risks. Most startups fail because they build something nobody wants. Talking to people early, especially people who are the intended users/customers for your idea can be a great way to protect yourself from that risk, which is considerably higher than the risk of someone taking off with your idea. Another general note, is that while ideas matter, I would generally advise you to get into startup for which you can generate a lot of value beyond the idea. One indicator for a good match between a founder and a startup is the answer to the question: "why is that founder uniquely positioned to execute the idea well". The best way to protect yourself from competition is to build a product that other people would have a hard time building, even if they had 'the idea'. These are usually startups which contain lots of hard challenges on the way from the idea to the business, and if you can convincingly explain why you can probably solve those challenges while others would have a hard time, you're on the right path. If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to set up a call. Good luck.DK
-
How much equity should I give an engineer who I'm asking to join my company as a co-founder? (He'll be receiving a salary, too, and I'm self-funding)
You will find a lot of different views on equity split. I haven't found a silver bullet. My preference/experience is for: 1. Unequal shares because one person needs to be the ultimate decision maker (even if it's 1% difference). I have found that I have never had to use that card because we are always rational about this (and I think us being rational is driven because we don't want a person to always pull that card cause it's a shitty card to pull) 2. When it comes to how much equity, I like Paul Graham's approach best: if I started the business by myself, I would own 100% of the equity; if xxx joined me, he/she would increase my chances of success by 40% (40% is just an example) at this moment in time. Therefore, I should give him/her 40% of the company (http://paulgraham.com/equity.html) 3. In terms of range, it could go between (15-49%) depending on the level of skill. But anything less than 15%, I would personally not feel like a cofounder 4. Regarding salary and the fact that you will pay him/her, that's tricky but a simple way to think about it: If an outside investor were to invest the equivalent of a salary at this exact moment into the startup, what % of the company would they get? (this may lowball it if you think the valuation is high but then again if you think you could get a high valuation for a company with no MVP, then you should go raise money) One extra thing for you to noodle on: given you are not technical, I would make sure a friend you trust (and who's technical) help you evaluate the skill of your (potential) cofounder. It will help stay calibrated given you really like this person.MR
-
What is a good/average conversion rate % for an e-commerce (marketplace model) for customers who add to cart through to purchase order.
There is quite a bit of information available online about eCommerce conversions rates. According to a ton of sources, average visitor-to-sale conversion rates vary from 1-3%. This does not mean the Furniture conversions will be the same. The bigger problem is that visitor-to-sale conversions are not a good data point to use to measure or tune your eCommerce business. All business have some unique friction factors that will affect your final conversion rate. It's very important to understand each of these factors and how to overcome them. The best way to measure and optimize is to take a conversion funnel approach. Once you have defined your funnel you can optimize each conversion rate to better the total effect. For example: Top of the funnel: - All web site visitors, 100,000 / month First conversion: View a product page, 50% of all visitors Second Conversion: Add to Cart, 10% of people who view products Final Conversion: Complete Checkout, 80% of people who put items in a cart In this example we see that only 10% of people who actually view products put them in to a cart, but 80% of those people purchase. If you can figure out why visitors are not adding items to their cart and fix the issue to increase the conversion rate, revenue should increase significantly because of the high checkout rate. You can use free tools like Google Analytics to give you a wealth of information about your site visitor and their behavior or there are some great paid tools as well.DM
-
What is a better title for a startup head....Founder or CEO? Are there any pros/cons to certain titles?
The previous answers given here are great, but I've copied a trick from legendary investor Monish Pabrai that I've used in previous startups that seems to work wonders -- especially if your company does direct B2B sales. Many Founders/ CEOs are hung up on having the Founder/ CEO/ President title. As others have mentioned, those titles have become somewhat devalued in today's world -- especially if you are in a sales meeting with a large organization. Many purchasing agents at large organizations are bombarded by Founders/ CEOs/ Presidents visiting them all day. This conveys the image that a) your company is relatively small (the CEO of GM never personally sells you a car) and b) you are probably the most knowledgeable person in the organization about your product, but once you land the account the client company will mostly be dealing with newly hired second level staff. Monish recommends that Founder/ CEOs hand out a business card that has the title "Head of Sales" or "VP of Sales". By working in the Head of Sales role, and by your ability to speak knowledgeably about the product, you will convey the message that a) every person in the organization is very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the product (even the sales guys) and b) you will personally be available to answer the client's questions over the long run. I've used this effectively many times myself.VR
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.