How to split equity is one of the first hard conversations a founding team has, and one of the most consequential. A few percentage points decided in a hurry at the start can be worth an enormous amount years later, and can shape who controls the company along the way.
There is no universally correct answer, but there is a right way to decide.
Equal splits
Many teams divide equity equally, and some respected investors actively recommend it. The reasoning is that almost all of the work lies ahead, not behind: the value of a company is built over many years, so small differences in who did what in the first few months rarely justify a large permanent gap. An equal split also signals mutual trust and keeps every founder feeling like a true owner rather than an employee.
The trade-offs are real, though. In a two-person team, a perfectly equal split leaves no one with a deciding vote, which can produce deadlock. And if the founders are not in fact contributing equally, an equal split can quietly breed resentment.
Weighted splits
Other teams weight the split to reflect differences between founders. Common factors include who is full-time versus part-time, who is taking the larger financial risk, who contributed essential early IP, the role each will play going forward, and each founder's relevant experience.
The risk with weighted splits is over-rewarding early work or the original idea. Startups are won on execution over years, so a split that leans too heavily on who came up with the concept can misprice the people who actually build and ship the product.
Whatever percentages you choose, what matters most is that the reasoning is honest, shared, and written down before anyone has reason to dispute it.
The split is only half the decision
A split on paper means little without vesting. Whether founders go equal or weighted, the equity should vest over time, typically across four years with a one-year cliff, so that a founder who leaves early does not walk away with a stake they never earned. Vesting is what makes any split — equal or weighted — survive contact with reality.
- Have the conversation before you incorporate, while it is still abstract and low-stakes.
- Decide on equal or weighted based on honest, forward-looking contribution, not just early work.
- Pair the split with vesting and a cliff so it holds if a founder leaves.
- Write the reasoning down, so future-you and future investors can see it was deliberate.
A pre-incorporation founder agreement is the natural place to record both the intended split and the vesting terms, so the deal is settled while the relationship is healthy.