In Slicing Pie

While there hasn’t been much written about dynamic equity splits they are hands down the most fair way to divide up shares in a start-up company among founders, early employees, partners and anyone else that deserves a slice of the pie. A fixed equity model, no matter how thoughtful and well-intended, is guaranteed to treat one or more people unfairly. A dynamic model, on the other hand, will allow you to determine exactly the right number of shares each person deserves based on (and here is the key) the relative value of their individual inputs.

Not long ago, I was approached by one of my students at Northwestern, who was distraught over a situation in a fledging company that she had started in my entrepreneurship class. Her group had decided to split the equity in her company equally – 25 percent each. Now that the class was over, the other three partners weren’t pulling their weight. Two of them were pretty much out of the picture, and the third was only doing a little.

I’m a reporter with Crain’s Chicago Business. I’m looking for sources for a group of stories about entrepreneurs who have exchanged equity in their business in return for professional services (consulting, legal work, web development, etc.) or made other alternate payment arrangements (barter, deferred payments, etc.) for services in order to save on cash.

Hello,

As part of the entrepreneurial community I’m reaching out to you and your network to share an opportunity we have to bring an equity partner on board focused on development.  Myself and my cofounder are experienced entrepreneurs leading an exciting project called ZigaVite.  We have an initial MVP that we anticipate would require two months of developer work.  The platform is very unique and I’m confident our team can achieve viability and success.  We are not seeking funding to maximize long term return for all.