How much equity co-founder in a CTO position (for an existing StartUp) should get

I am wondering how much equity (in percentage) should I demand for a co-founder CTO position in a start-up which opened 7 months ago?

Here are some details on the start-up:
= The main founder is the CEO and the brain behind the idea.
- There is already R&D director which works for options.
- They have a working prototype.
- They made contact with VC although the VC asked for another impressive co-founder to invest (I have the proper experience to be that co-founder)
- Currently there are some potential customers although no deal has been signed yet.

I have been asked to say how much equity I want to join.

Appreciate your opinion.

Getting Started Equity

asked Oct 9 '13 at 22:20

Uri
106 points

Get up to $750K in working capital to finance your business: Clarify Capital Business Loans

Related, but probably a slightly different scenario: http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/47510/ – rbwhitaker 10 years ago

1 Answer

This is very vague. It depends on many parameters that we don't know such as:

your expected workload (especially compared to the other cofounders)
your role is only "to be the third that the investor wants to see" or you bring something more to the company?
how specific your contribution is - could they find easily someone else than you?
would it be your main source of revenues or just a side project?
...

Answer these questions for you and for the two other co-founders and make the comparison. In itself it's easy: the distribution of the equity should correspond to the distribution of contributions (work, cash, skills, knowledge, cash, potential customers, cotacts, opportunities,...) of each of co-founders.

answered Oct 9 '13 at 22:44

Data Smarter
1,274 points

My contribution is in building similar products and managing such developments. I also bring experience in business dev. and marketing. Can you recommend on the amount of equity? – Uri 10 years ago
There are more questions: what is the equity of the main founder? And the one of the R&D director? Will you also receive some salary? **If there is no salary and you estimate that your job will be as important as the one of the R&D director, then ask for the same equity as he has** (I assume that the main founder has a bigger equity already now). – Data Smarter 10 years ago