Founders' Assessment
By Jan Ritter · 4 August 2026
By Jan Ritter · 4 August 2026
6 topics to discuss with your co-founders before you incorporate
A great demo shows that the technology works. A well-rehearsed founding team proves that a real company will come out of it. Most founder conflicts have little to do with the technology. They often start with assumptions about vision, roles, money, and commitment that nobody discussed while things were still easy.
The Founders' Assessment is a short questionnaire designed to surface those conversations early, before legal decisions lock them in. It isn't a legal contract. It's a guide for an open discussion among founders. Complete it on your own first, then compare and discuss as a team.
Here are the six parts of the Founders' Assessment and what to get straight with your co-founders in each.
If one co-founder pictures a sale in three years and another wants to build for twenty, the conflict already exists. You just haven't named it yet.
Talk through why each of you personally wants to build this company rather than take another path, what your shared vision is, and when you would call the company a success. Then decide the big one: are you building for a 7+ year journey or an earlier exit? That answer shapes everything from how you grow to the kind of company you are trying to become, so put it in writing and revisit it at each major milestone.
In even-numbered teams, an unresolved decision mechanism creates deadlock. Agree on how you'll break a stalemate before you actually need to.
Get clear on who holds which role (CEO, CTO, business development), and how key decisions get made. Common models are unanimous, simple majority, a qualified two-thirds majority, or a CEO tie-break or veto on defined matters. Agree on a conflict-resolution process for when you hit a genuine stalemate, and on how you handle a co-founder joining or leaving later, including non-compete, non-solicitation, and buy-back of shares.
Resentment builds when effort is unequal and unspoken. Name any imbalance early, and agree whether it is acceptable and how it shows up in roles or equity.
Be honest about how each of you finances your life right now and how long your personal budget lasts with no salary. Surface side jobs, studies, or other obligations, and the hours each of you can realistically commit per week. Then decide how you cover first costs like travel, prototypes, and software before outside funding arrives. Options include pro rata contributions from each founder, a lead founder pre-funding and getting reimbursed at the first financing, or a joint monthly budget with a cost cap.
The hard questions are coming. If you can't speak openly about them today, they won't disappear. Unspoken disagreements usually return when the stakes are higher.
Ask whether you've spent enough time together, especially in a work context and not only socially. If the honest answer is not yet, agree on concrete steps: working sessions, a shared workation, or coaching. Confirm that you can communicate openly and constructively when you disagree on strategy or priorities, and write down an explicit feedback agreement covering how, when, and how often you give it.
Investors expect a team to have thought about vesting and buy-back by the time you incorporate. It protects the company, the investors, and the founders who stay. Whatever you agree here becomes the substance of your formal documents.
Decide how equity is split at the start and why, and how you reflect brought-in IP or outsized early contributions. A common instinct is to hand a large premium for the original idea or an early prototype, and it usually causes more harm than it prevents. Decide whether you want reverse vesting so founders earn their shares over time, where four years with a one-year cliff is the market standard. And agree what happens if someone leaves, voluntarily or not, including good leaver and bad leaver terms and the buy-back price.
A startup eventually needs people who are fully committed. Define the point after which each of you will focus on the company, so nobody is surprised when things get difficult.
Put the backup plans on the table: who currently holds a job offer, a PhD position, or another fallback. Agree by when each of you needs to choose between that option and the startup, and map each founder's expected commitment over the next 6, 12, and 24 months. Finally, name what you are actually committing to: a specific problem, a technology, this exact team, a minimum time frame, or all of it.
The value lies in the conversation. Once you've worked through the six parts, write down the positions you agreed on, decide who does what by when, and set a review date. Those positions shape your co-founder agreement, including the shareholders' agreement and vesting terms. That's when the Assessment starts protecting the team you're building.
This blog post is for discussion and general information purposes only and should not be considered as legal advice.
Complete Founders' Assessment with your co-founders, then book a 30-minute founder session with us. We'll review your answers with you, identify any open questions and, if it's a fit, help you turn them into a founders' agreement that supports your incorporation.
Tell us about your plans. We'll get back to you asap with an initial assessment and a meeting proposal.
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