Co-Founders & Equity: The Conversations You Must Have Now

Two years in, a handshake deal becomes the most expensive thing you never wrote down.

Co-founder conflict ends more startups than the market ever does. The split felt obvious on day one, so you skipped the awkward talk: who owns what, what happens if someone leaves, who gets the final call when you disagree. Then the company grows, contributions diverge, and a vague agreement turns into resentment with no clause to fall back on.

This course walks you through the exact conversations to have before any of that hardens. You will work through why an equal split usually beats a "fair" one, how vesting protects the company from both of you, where decision rights and role boundaries actually live, and how to move from a whiteboard sketch to a signed agreement. The centerpiece is ten direct questions you answer out loud, together, while it still costs nothing to disagree.

Who it's for

First-time co-founders: about to split equity and want a structure that survives the next two years, not just the launch.

Solo founders recruiting a partner: need to set vesting, roles, and decision rights before the first promise is made.

Existing teams running on a handshake: sense the cracks and want to formalize the deal before a disagreement forces the issue.