Technical founder verbally agreed to 50/50 with potential cofounder - now reconsidering after reflecting on contribution levels
I’m a technical founder and I’ve already spent months researching, validating, designing, and building my startup before meeting anyone else. I built the MVP, backend systems, infrastructure, UI/UX, testing, and handled all the technical execution myself.
Recently, I met someone with business/domain experience who immediately understood the vision and started contributing strong ideas around monetisation, workflows, user retention, and commercial strategy. We had a really good discussion and during the excitement of the conversation I verbally said 50/50 sounded fine.
But after thinking more deeply, I’m now questioning whether immediate equal ownership makes sense considering the product foundation and execution already existed before he joined.
At the same time, I also recognise that strong business contribution can become extremely valuable long term.
Nothing has been signed yet and the company isn’t incorporated yet.
How do founders usually handle situations like this fairly?
Would you consider immediate 50/50 reasonable, or would it make more sense to:
- start uneven,
- use vesting,
- have a trial collaboration period,
- or let equity evolve based on contribution over time?
Would genuinely appreciate perspectives from both technical and non-technical founders.