Foundrs co-founder equity calculator
Web and SaaS
equity calculator
SHOW HN2011
How HN took it
9 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 4 mixed, 7 critical, out of 30 comments about the project. Thread score +0.10.
Idea: 4 for, 5 againstPerformance: 4 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Results matched real splits people had at their companies
From 3 comments
As a validation data point, it came to within 5 points on the actual 3-way split at my company.
rdl on HNI have been running my startup for a little over 2 years now (bootstrapped). After inputting my constraints/situation to the simulation, it was pretty much spot on. I definitely…
phereford on HNJust tested it out and it's pretty cool. Obviously not a be all end all, but tested out some situations I'm in and some which my friends are in, and it gets pretty close for my…
teamlaft on HN
Interesting way to frame the question and sanity check splits
From 3 comments
I think it's great the way the rule of 72 is great: awesome for a quick sanity check, terrible to become the sole input. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what you were going for;…
invalidOrTaken on HNI found this a pretty interesting and useful way to look at this. One additional factor I would love to see: situations where one person is coming on a "late" cofounder (e.g. a…
zngtk4 on HNI think its perfect. It calculated what I had long thought was a fair split based on what I have done in the past. One thing that would be interesting would be to add…
phlux on HN
Objections
Ignores risk and personal financial commitment
From 2 comments
This doesn't take into account much in the way of risk. Really, those that take the most financial and legal risk (e.g. if the company goes under, who's on the line), should have…
shoeless on HNThat's the thing, the only time I feel like founders should get a different distribution of equity is if one of the founders is paying salaries, paying for hosting, paying for…
Ixiaus on HN
Equity splits are a negotiation, not a formula
From 2 comments
I actually came into this situation with my current startup. My partner had the MVP built by contractors before I came on. He is completely BD/sales, but he had a close advisor…
dlevine on HNI've done about 4 startups now - and always chosen to split the equity evenly between the founders, despite the fact a tool like this one would have suggested I would have been…
adamt on HN
Suspected sock-puppet upvotes from new accounts
From 3 comments
Not cool the way you got to the front page. Imagine if everyone did the same.
rokhayakebe on HNPresumably he's referring to the plethora of comments below from accounts created within the last hour whose only comment is a one or two word praise for this submission. It…
andyn on HNI suspect more meatpupptetry, as in promoting on twitter/facebook and asking friends and followers to come and leave feedback and vote up the submission. Nothing wrong with that,…
redthrowaway on HN
Requests
Ability to change weighting
From 1 comment
It'd be nice to be able to play with the weighting.
davidw on HN
Handle partial-time and timeline changes
From 1 comment
Mostly accurate for me. I've been talking to two developers about joining a bootstrapped startup I've been working on... I'm full-time, MVP is 80% of the way, and its in a space…
a5seo on HN
Handle late-joining co-founders and work to date
From 2 comments
I found this a pretty interesting and useful way to look at this. One additional factor I would love to see: situations where one person is coming on a "late" cofounder (e.g. a…
zngtk4 on HNMy 0.02€ - can it include a way of proportioning "work to date" - ie let's say the startup has been incubating for 2 years, and it's now found 2 co-founders... How do I model…
ragmondo on HN
Checkboxes instead of radio buttons for investor question
From 1 comment
"Who pitches investors" should probably be checkboxes, not radio buttons.
portman on HN
Questions
What is the methodology?
From 1 comment
Can you share the methodology?
pitdesi on HN
How to round non-round splits like three equal founders
From 1 comment
I didn't implement rounding in the first version for a very simple reason: in the case of 3 equal founders, the answer should be 33.33/33.33/33.33. So rounding to the nearest 5…
alain94040 on HN
Alternatives named
Excel founders pie calculator
From 1 comment
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fd0n/35%20Founders%20Pie%20Calculator.htm A similar tool in Excel.
tuhin on HN
Joel Spolsky's founder equity advice
From 1 comment
Joel Spolsky wrote a little on founder equity and a potential method to divide ownership.…
wonginator1221 on HN