Co-Founder Equity Splits—Ways to Approach Allocations

How you divide equity reflects your values, directly impacts your co-founder relationship, and influences how your team and investors perceive your startup. Read more to learn methods for dividing equity that align with your values and can minimize conflict between founders.

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3 Topics to Discuss before Writing a Founders’ Agreement

You found a great co-founder. When should you formalize your relationship? You may be tempted to draft a founders’ agreement to demonstrate trust in the partnership, but before you make a legal commitment, make sure you’re aligned with your co-founder in 3 critical areas.

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Scaling Your Startup? Focus More on People

What sets apart a founder who scales successfully? Many say it’s shifting your focus away from executing to building and managing your team. HBS professor Shikhar Ghosh talked with serial entrepreneur and investor Nick Grouf. In this quick exchange, Grouf shares core insights on why founders need to focus more on people, especially as their business scales.

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Managing the Pressures of Rapid Scaling

As you scale, the strengths and habits that enabled you to launch—visionary thinking, working nonstop, or making decisions based on experiential knowledge—can become liabilities that damage your startup’s capacity for long-term growth and have serious negative consequences. In an interview with Shikhar Ghosh, Careem’s co-founders Mudassir Sheikha, Magnus Olsson, and Abdulla Elyas reflect on their meteoric growth from 2012-2014. Candidly sharing the mistakes they made, they identify the consequences of rapid scaling and share practical advice for other founders.

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Key Terms to Include in a Founders’ Agreement

A poorly-constructed agreement often leads to founder conflict which can kill your startups. We can’t promise that your founders’ agreement will prevent all founder conflict. But we can provide a framework that will help you avoid common mistakes and equip you to handle conflict.

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Ways to Improve Your Relationship with Your Board

Your board makes critical decisions, including whether to enter strategic transactions and whether to hire or fire senior management. Identify and avoid the common mistakes many founders make when interacting and learn ways to strengthen your relationship and leverage their expertise.

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Should You Add a Co-Founder?

Having a co-founder dilutes your equity and authority. When does adding a co-founder add more value than hiring an executive with similar skills? Understanding the unique role a co-founder plays can help you determine if and when you need one.

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How Mission Helps You Build the Best Team

Adam Enbar, serial entrepreneur and investor, shares how having a well-defined mission helped him grow his startup from a small idea into the Flatiron School, a rapidly growing coding school that is disrupting higher education.

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Navigating a Deal before You Sign a Term Sheet

How do you assess the offer and navigate a term sheet, ensure you’re getting the best terms, prevent critical misunderstandings, and optimize your level of control and cash upon exit? HBS faculty, serial entrepreneurs and investors identified 3 different angles from which you need to examine terms.

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