equity, hiring, co-founderI am currently an advisor receiving .75% equity with a startup in Chicago for (on a paper) 5 hours worth of time/month. I say on paper because realistically I am providing more like 10 hours/week in support at the moment (8x of advisor contract). As a medical professional with a love for the tech space this company is in, I want to have a greater role and feel it is highly important for them to have me on board as somewhere between a co-founder and first hire. The 2 current co-founders are not at all in the medical field (despite their company offering somewhat of a service in this space), thus I know I would help legitimize the company with a greater role as well as continue to offer my expertise.
I have been working with them for 3 months and I believe they may get VC money in the next 2-4 months. While I’m not a published figure who will be the face of the company, I want to get on board with being a hire for much greater equity (and some sort of salary) making a much greater contribution to the company. While maybe not “reliant” on my contributions, I think the co-founders see me as being incredibly valuable to their business operation.
I am concerned that the cofounders are being advised to hold me off for as long as possible considering they are getting almost a free service out of me at the moment as hard working advisor. While I do trust the cofounders 100%, I want to both protect myself from getting taken advantage of and also want to set myself up to have a steady flow of income from this opportunity that I feel will succeed.
Do you have any recommendations as to how to move forward in this type of situation? I certainly feel I can make a huge impact as a cofounder…but I doubt they want to give me cofounder equity (or title).
I was feeling like moving forward with this in the next week might be smart, rather than waiting until the have VC money. I’ve certainly weathered a risk getting involved as an advisor. I would be happy to continue to take on the startup risk with a much greater bump in $ and equity, which of course would allow me to offer more time/energy to help the company grow.
My greatest hope is to support the growth of this company, putting in much time and energy upfront, to help it become a scalable and profitable business without being tied to being an “employee.”
I appreciate your time and look forward to any responses/feedback you may have.
From what you said, moving forward before the VC funding seems the correct strategy. However they might be suspicious of your intentions especially if they know that you know that they’ll get funding.
However the correct strategy is the one where you tell them that you know they are probably getting funded and you wish to join them as a co-founder.
The “why you want to get on board” you mostly answered in your own question, something which you would emphasize during your discussions. If you are really important to the company, and they need a medical professionals in the future, especially if they grow, you would want to point out to them that bringing you on board is the right move to do.
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