I’ve been working nights and weekends for equity on two early-stage startup that I helped found. I get frustrated every time I have to work on one of them, and get frustrated every time I can’t work on the other. Time for a change….

Dump one. And make sure the equity is worth it.

Working for equity means you’re not a founder regardless of what the founder told you. I hope you got enough equity to make it worthwhile.

Anonymous says:

May 7, 2014 at 2:49 pm

Every founder works for equity in the early stages – what could you possibly mean by “you’re not a founder”?

Reply
- Anonymous says:
  
  May 8, 2014 at 12:31 am
  
  I guess its just the way its worded. Normally founders don’t say they work “for equity” since they obviously HAVE equity (subject to vesting of course).
  
  A lot of people entice other people to join them by saying “hey you’ll be a co-founder and you get compensated in stock”. These types of arrangements usually result in very little stock and a lot of work with the carrot of calling yourself a “founder’.
  
  If you’re a real founder, I apologize for the misstatement.
  
  Reply
  - Anonymous says:
    
    May 8, 2014 at 4:27 pm
    
    Cheers – agreed. If you’re being recruited as a founder you need to have the equity split conversation as early as possible (if not immediately, then at least within the first month of working together).
    
    Reply
Anonymous says:

May 7, 2014 at 5:20 pm

Actually, I am a co-founder of both…

Reply
- Anonymous says:
  
  May 8, 2014 at 4:29 pm
  
  I’m assuming both are unaware of the other. Agreed that it’s time for a change mate. Just pick the team that you work with best (we all know team is the most important thing at this stage). Helps if your cofounders have complimentary skills.
  
  Reply

Lol @ working at two startups like that’s an accomplishment. One startup already has a huge chance to fail, you’ve gone fully bonkers by attempting to run two at the same time. You do realize it just increases the odds of total failure right? “I WORKED 100 HOURS THIS WEEK HURDUR” yeah but you probably didn’t get anything important done.

Anonymous says:

May 7, 2014 at 3:23 pm

How many companies is Elon Musk running currently?

Reply
- Anonymous says:
  
  May 7, 2014 at 7:09 pm
  
  The difference is that he can afford to hire people to help him run his companies because he’s wealthy now. When he was starting out though it was just Paypal.
  
  Look at Berkshire Hathaway for instance; it’s made up of many different companies, but it’s not like Warren Buffett is actually dedicating the right amount of time to each of them; he puts good managers in place and just oversees things.
  
  That’s most likely what Musk is doing as well; he’s probably focusing more of his energy on Tesla and SpaceX and not his solar power company.
  
  Reply
  - Anonymous says:
    
    May 7, 2014 at 9:50 pm
    
    Elon never worked directly at solar city, he was just the chairman of the company – his sister and maybe his brother in law (iirc) have always been the ones at the reins.
    
    Reply

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