01
Separate past contribution from future work
Equity is for the journey, not the first sprint.
Made for Entrepreneurs
Have the Co-Founder Equity Conversation Before the Cap Table Gets Weird
Also useful for: Founders, Franchise Owners, Restaurant Owners, Small Business Owners, people in Entrepreneurship
40 min
Intermediate
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneur
Career outcome:
Avoid Professional Risk
Align on contribution, vesting, and exit scenarios before incorporation nostalgia sets in.
We'll use them to write your prompt.
Completed ✓
Make Your Play
Give us the situation. We’ll build the prompt.
Equal splits feel fair until one person leaves or stops showing up.
Your answers save as you type.
What you'll do
This is the plan inside your prompt. Add your details first. Then follow these steps with ChatGPT or Claude.
02
Propose split and vesting
Paper follows a principled proposal.
03
Write the conversation script
Name the elephant.
04
Document next legal steps
Verbal isn't a cap table.
Make Your Play
Have the Co-Founder Equity Conversation Before the Cap Table Gets Weird
Tell us what the prompt needs to know
Start with the questions below. Each answer personalizes the playbook and builds the prompt you’ll use at the end.
Your situation
Idea, code, customers, cash, IP, relationships.
0/10000
Who does what for the next 12 months.
0/10000
Salary, jobs, geography, opportunity cost.
0/10000
Prior verbal agreements, family money, prior cofounder, immigration.
0/10000
This playbook was updated. Review your inputs before copying.
What you'll do
Check a step when you finish it.
01
Separate past contribution from future work
Equity is for the journey, not the first sprint.
02
Propose split and vesting
Paper follows a principled proposal.
03
Write the conversation script
Name the elephant.
04
Document next legal steps
Verbal isn't a cap table.
Fill in the fields above to generate your prompt preview.
Assembled prompt
Beginner instructions
Fill the fields with this week’s real details. Incomplete notes beat invented polish.
Run the assembled prompt, answer follow-ups with specifics, then copy the deliverable into your own doc and verify names and numbers.
Advanced instructions
Add constraints the model can’t see: politics, licensing, cash timing, union rules, or family bandwidth.
After the first pass, ask it to attack the weakest assumption in the draft.
Use this when
You are incorporating, bringing on a cofounder, or "we will figure it out later" has become later.
You'll need
- Each person's contribution so far
- Expected roles going forward
- What you are each giving up
- Constraints and fears
You'll get
- A a split proposal, vesting terms, and a conversation script with fallback options you can use without rewriting it from scratch.
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- A a split proposal, vesting terms, and a conversation script with fallback options you can use without rewriting it from scratch.
Examples
Progress 1 of 4