A co-founder equity split calculator recommends a fair percentage of the company for each founder by weighting role, time commitment, capital invested, idea origin, risk, and network. Use this free tool to quantify each contribution before you sign a cap table - and avoid the founder disputes that come from gut-feel splits.
Add 2 to 5 co-founders, score each contribution factor, and get an instant equity split, share counts, and a copy-pasteable summary for your shareholder agreement conversation.
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Add 2 to 5 co-founders and score each contribution. Every change updates the split instantly.
How critical is this person's role/skill?
Hours per week + full-time vs part-time
Cash this person has invested into the company
How much of the original idea/IP came from this person?
Did they leave a job, take a pay cut, sign personal guarantees?
Brings investors, customers, or domain reputation
How critical is this person's role/skill?
Hours per week + full-time vs part-time
Cash this person has invested into the company
How much of the original idea/IP came from this person?
Did they leave a job, take a pay cut, sign personal guarantees?
Brings investors, customers, or domain reputation
How critical is this person's role/skill?
Hours per week + full-time vs part-time
Cash this person has invested into the company
How much of the original idea/IP came from this person?
Did they leave a job, take a pay cut, sign personal guarantees?
Brings investors, customers, or domain reputation
Configure your authorized share count and the option pool you want to set aside before founders divide the rest.
Authorized shares the cap table is built on.
Reserved for future hires before founders split the remainder.
Vesting (informational)
Standard founder vesting is 4 years with a 1-year cliff: nothing vests for the first 12 months, then it vests monthly until year 4. This protects the company if a co-founder leaves early.
The relative importance of each contribution factor. Defaults sum to 100 - tune them if your business weights contributions differently.
Five steps to a defensible co-founder equity split you can take straight into a shareholder agreement conversation.
Step 01
List every founder on the cap table by name (2 to 5 founders).
Step 02
Move sliders for role, time, idea, risk, and network. Enter capital invested in dollars.
Step 03
Optionally adjust how much each factor matters for your specific business.
Step 04
Reserve 0 to 20% for future hires before founders divide the remainder.
Step 05
Review percentages, share counts, and the per-factor math. Copy or print the summary.
Straight answers to what co-founders ask before signing a cap table.
A co-founder equity split calculator is a tool that recommends a fair percentage of the company for each founder based on weighted contribution factors like role, time commitment, capital invested, idea origin, risk taken, and network. It produces a defensible cap table starting point so founders can negotiate from numbers instead of feelings.
The most fair split is one that reflects each founder's actual contribution and risk. A weighted model that scores role criticality, full-time commitment, capital invested, idea origin, personal risk, and network produces a defensible split. Equal splits work only when contributions are equal across every dimension, which is rare in practice.
Not always, but often yes. The founder who originated the idea, took the biggest pay cut, recruited the team, or works full-time while others moonlight typically deserves more. If contributions are genuinely equal across role, time, capital, risk, and network, an equal split is reasonable - but stress-test that assumption honestly before signing.
Vesting means each founder earns their equity over time rather than receiving it all on day one. The standard schedule is 4 years with a 1-year cliff: a founder who leaves before 12 months gets nothing, and after the cliff they vest monthly until 4 years are complete. This protects the company if a founder quits early.
A cliff is a minimum time a founder must stay before any equity vests. The standard is a 1-year cliff on a 4-year vesting schedule. If a founder leaves before the cliff, they forfeit all unvested shares. This prevents someone from joining for a few months and walking away with a meaningful stake.
The CEO often gets a small equity premium because they carry fundraising, hiring, and strategic responsibility, but the gap is usually 5 to 15 percentage points rather than double. Title alone doesn't justify a bigger slice; what justifies it is the breadth of role, accountability, and the work that no other co-founder is doing.
A 50/50 split isn't automatically bad, but it carries a deadlock risk: with no tiebreaker, an irreconcilable disagreement can paralyze the company. Many investors prefer to see at least a 51/49 split, plus a clear shareholder agreement defining how disputes are resolved. If you choose 50/50, document the dispute-resolution process upfront.
Keep planning the raise, the build, and the launch with the rest of the free toolkit.
Model how a SAFE converts at the next priced round and what dilution it costs your cap table.
Estimate the build budget you'll need before raising or splitting equity.
Rank what each founder should focus on first using the RICE scoring framework.
Document who you're building for so every founder is aligned on the customer.