I found some mentors ~8 months ago who could potentially start helping us develop investor relations. He didn’t want to speak to mentors OR investors because they could take the idea and run.

I wanted to bring 1-2 devs on board after 5-6 months of development to start scaling it up and to complement my weaknesses and to start maturing the foundation of what I had built so far. He didn’t want to because it would be giving up equity too early.

Today, we’re almost out of money, no sales (been live for ~4 months now), I’m burnt out being the only dev working 12+ hours/day every day (plus helping with biz operations) for the last 6-7 months.. He just now started looking for funding. I’m very unhappy and not super confident in his ability to lead us to success.

Should I stay or should I go?

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The owner does not want a co-founder, but her working full time, she really depends on my assistance in managing her business. I work with full dedication, treating this business as IF I was an owner, 24/7, providing great results and growth, mostly independent of her. This business has grown absolutely too big to manage next to a full-time job and she can only continue doing so with my help.

So now I am not a co-founder, but essential and involved in all facets of this business….
How would you create a reasonable pay structure?
How would my pay compare to that of the owner?
Should I look at a ‘market rate’ salary (which means the owner makes more than 3X what I am making!) or should it be aligned with being business partners that do profit sharing – and so yes, what would be a reasonable split?

The post The ‘Could Be’ Co-founder Compensation appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

– I’m barely getting paid since April
– nobody in the startup understand what I’m doing
– there is no organization, no transparency and no teamwork within the “team”
– we don’t know what we are doing, which is fine but the CEO refuses feedbacks from me and external advisors (startup programs) to improve our efficiency
– there is a huge gap between what we communicate and say to potential investors, and the current state of our team and product
– I feel deeply unhappy working there

But:
– We are raising money, which means a proper salary soon if I stay
– Before raising money, the CEO will found the company again (I dont know the details about that) and I’ll finally get shares which I don’t have right now
– Money doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll get better

I’m actively looking for other positions, and I don’t know if I should quit now, or wait to get shares, or wait for the fundraising as I guess that a team in a tech startup without tech people will struggle more to raise funds.

The post As the only tech cofounder, should I quit my startup? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

pricing in mind is £4.99 a month. but if/when I reach the vat threshold ill need to register for VAT. This means if I keep the original pricing ill have my profits reduced by 20%.

so should I just charge £5.99, so when it does get to the time I have to pay VAT, it wont affect my profits??

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Started my startup a few years ago with another co-founder. Put the money in with him ,bootstraped MVP, found the engineers tetc.

Then we brought on 3rd tech co-founder. He really accelerated the product to make it great. Tbh I took my foot off pedal during this period (circa 8 months). So we had some awkward conversations and I dropped my percentage in company from 33% to 10%. Then I was tasked with onboarding new users and retention (something i’ve never done and which is very difficult i’ve learnt). I set up onboarding flows in Intercom etc. Not converted loads, it’s something i’m refining.

Technical guy designs product, other hustles seed funding etc, all things that are tangible. I’m left with the hardest bit.

We are at app launch stage now – we’ve been web based and – & the original co-founder said he’d give my original investment amount back & I walk

– Do I walk?

– Do I dig in and stay at 10%?

– Do I say i’ll drop to 5% and just do support?

The post Co-founders want me out appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

My previous cofounders left due to the mix of both points – the lack of significant progress and my challenging personality. After a brief crisis, I found new cofounders. I gave them more space to make/impact decisions, worked on improving myself. Teamwork was regularly difficult, also because we started with trust issues (they heard bad stuff from my previous cofounders, I had some trust issues due to the shitty way one of the previous cofounders left).

After working together for a little over half a year, we’ve made some business progress, and I’ve made some professional progress. However, esp in the latter aspect, my cofounders feel I’m lacking. They see this a reason to reconsider our equity split. Since I’ve already invested all my personal savings (enough to buy a nice tesla) and about 2 years before they joined, to me the current 50/25/25 split seems fair.

What do you guys & gals think? How are my chances if I have to find new cofounders again?

The post Is it reasonable to reconsider equity split if the founder is underperforming? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

The post We are a team of three co founders. What can you do if you are the only one committing 10 hours + and the rest is doing 9-5? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

Our CEO is under the gun to meet some deadlines before the next board meeting, so I don’t want to stress him out further, but he may be able to use this information to plan his budget. At the same time, I read there may be some disadvantages to giving too much notice.

The post I plan on leaving a small startup in 7 weeks, should I give notice? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

I know I need more guidance from someone with experience in the start-up world (I work in professional sports, but would love to start something of my own).  How do I find someone I can trust to commit to helping me, while also protecting my idea?

The post Where do I find a trusted advisor and how do I protect my idea? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

I just feel I can’t even deal with anything anymore and do only the most mandatory tasks some kind of repulsion averting all responsabilities. It’s not that I feel down or depressed. My brain is just on idle mode on an extended notice.

Do you also feel this or are you always fired up and when not you just start considering moving on to another project?

The post Sometimes although I know I have a lot to do, I just procrastinate. What about you? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

But now I realize that this online site is being drowned out by so many competitors.  I just don’t know how to get law firms and legal recruiters motivated to post on my site.  My site traffic also sucks despite some scattered blog posts that have had over twenty thousand views each.  I have also put on networking events to promote the online site in New York and got dozens of corporate sponsors and hundreds of lawyers to attend.  The last event netted me $35,000 bucks.  My website is not profitable.  My legal practice is very profitable and wants to grow.

I need help figuring out what to do next (focus on events….quit the job site…..focus on a different strategy to get the site more successful?)

The post What Direction Should I Take My Startup? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

Just as much as the company, I feel like his journey down this path is a bad sign that he’s not thinking the same thing I am… is it time to split or change?

The post Scaling back just after launch? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

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One who is a great project manager (our business) but turns out isn’t right for a strategic role in the buiness (being a partner, strategy, overall mgmt etc). We initially agreed on an equity stake, salary and a high-up mgmt title.

The other co-founder is someone I would dearly love to have join immediately as they’d make a great strategic/organisational fit but we don’t have the cash flow and her life is already full. Likewise, equity stake, salary and title.

Any thoughts on what I should do about equity, salary and just general management of this situation.

I’ve tossed around in my head different equity splits, new titles, bringing more people on, letting these people go – just after some outside perspective as at the moment – It’s driving my nuts and I feel like I’m building this business by myself.

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We have some money saved up but that would go towards the business and not living expenses.  I’m sure there are other startup founders who have been in the same situation.

How do you do a startup but also cover living expenses?  I understand that raising money is an option but would a VC really understand if you tell them that you need a $100-$200k salary?  That sounds crazy to me.

The post How do you become an entrepreneur if you’re older, have family, loans, etc? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

Is this normal? He’s basically getting 30% of the company for nothing although I do understand he has risked his own money in this venture.

The post Should my investor be paid wages from day one of his investment? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

On Feb 2, I joined as the CTO of a 2yr old startup that had very limited tech capabilities. On April 2, the CEO called me into his office and said to expedite an issue that we’ve been tackling for about 2 months now. I thought we were moving at a good pace but I guess I was wrong. That’s on me.

Then we came up with a plan to find an outside team and to outsource it. We executed the plan with constant communication and updates, we stayed nimble to the plan, picked two teams from our selection of 4 and started working on the project.

On April 16th, the CEO changed his mind, overrode my recommendations and said to go with 1 of the 4 outsourcing vendors (that did not make the cut).

How do I address this misalignment? How do I get the CEO’s “trust” so that I can start managing the technical risks instead of him managing it himself (he’s not techy btw)?

The post How do I (the CTO) Find Alignment with the CEO? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.

At that rate you’d easily clear 1M in over 4 years which is the median time it takes for any company to be successful. If you were a programmer making that kind of salary and say you haven’t gotten “rich” yet, why in gods earth would make you want to throw it all away for a crapshoot?

In my time, programmers made $100K and a 2M “payday” doing a startup was something that is desirable. With such an insanely high salary, you’ve pretty much won the lottery without even trying!

The post Why would a programmer in SV start a startup these days? appeared first on Startups Anonymous.