Founders Collaboration Agreement

We've heard it before

“It happened to me”, he said.

“3 other business partners are rich now. They cut me out when it got sold to a global advertising company… get some form of contract or paperwork divvying up ownership as early as humanly possible.”

Sound familiar?

We all know someone whose business relationship turned sour. Whether through success or failure, even the most trusted friendships can falter when money is a stake.

You might be working on an MVP or pulling 18 hour shifts at a hackathon. When you’re riding high on adrenalin, watching your startup idea come to life, no one wants to talk about the legals. Who owns the code? If we launch this thing, what’s my stake?

You could reach for a napkin and scribble something down - that’s better than nothing. Or you can go one step further and use a Founders Collaboration Agreement.

Founders Collaboration Agreement

This simple, one-page agreement covers three important things:

• the transfer of the technology you’re working on to your future startup company
• your anticipated share ownership in the company
• an agreement to (within 30 days) fully document the rules between you and your co-founders via a shareholders agreement, with share vesting arrangements.

Put simply: it’s enough to get you started.

How to use it

Using this agreement is easy as pie:

• add the name of each collaborator
• describe your concept/technology as clearly as possible
• add the ownership percentage for each collaborator
• print and sign

The body of the document can be used ‘as is’*, but you can also edit any part of it as needed.