How Much Ownership Should You Have in Your Startup?

Initial Founder Ownership

• 💡 When just starting a startup, founders and co-founders should own 100% of the company.
• ⚠️ It's important to avoid giving away shares to advisors or others at the very beginning.

Navigating Seed Capital and SAFEs

• 🧩 Raising seed capital via SAFEs (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) makes tracking ownership tricky.
• 📝 A SAFE is an IOU to investors; equity is not technically given away until the first priced round converts the SAFE.
• 📈 Multiple tranches of SAFE fundraises can further complicate understanding future equity dilution.

Tracking Pre-Series A Dilution

• ✅ For post-money SAFEs, conversion math is simpler, allowing founders to track virtually given away equity.
• 🎯 A good target is to sell less than 30% of your business ownership before your Series A round.

Post-Series A Ownership Targets

• 🔑 After a Series A, a good target for founders is to maintain greater than 50% ownership for majority control.
• 🤝 While majority ownership might not always be possible post-Series A, a strong team and board can align with the founder's vision.

The Ideal of Bootstrapping

• 🚀 The hosts suggest that having 100% ownership always is ideal, encouraging founders to consider bootstrapping if possible.
• 🚫 Bootstrapping allows founders to avoid shareholder pressure and grow the company as they prefer, though funding is sometimes necessary.