Co-founder terms
Some products can be taken on by a founding team rather than a single buyer. You put in what you have, cash or otherwise, and the rest is equity that vests.
Who can apply
One person or a group, applying together as a founding team. A listing that allows it says so, and says how many places it has. No product takes more than ten co-founders.
- Team size
- Between one and ten, set per product
- Cash
- Some is expected, but not the full price
- Everything else
- Audience, distribution, sales, engineering, operations, category knowledge
Prototypes and founding teams
This route exists mostly for products that have not launched. A prototype needs somebody who knows the market, can reach the first customers and will do the work — which is exactly what a founding team brings and exactly what money on its own does not.
The trade is explicit: you are taking on more risk than a buyer of a revenue-generating product, and the price and the split reflect that. We stay on the register, so we carry the same risk you do.
How the stake is set
You do not name a percentage. You tell us what each person brings and what they commit to, and we set the split. Cash counts at face value. Non-cash contributions are valued against what it would cost to buy the same result.
Temp & Major keeps the remainder and stays on the register. We answer applications within five working days, and we say why when we decline.
Vesting
Every co-founder’s equity vests over four years from the date the agreement is signed. Nothing vests in the first twelve months. On the first anniversary a quarter vests at once, and the rest vests monthly across the following thirty-six.
Vesting is tied to the obligations in your place, not to time alone. Stop doing the work and the clock stops with it.
- Cliff
- 12 months, nothing before it
- At the cliff
- 25% vests in one go
- After
- 1/48th a month for 36 months
- Acceleration
- Only on a sale of the whole product, and only for those still working
Obligations
Each place in a founding team is written down before anything is signed: hours a week, deliverables, capital instalments, whatever was offered in the application. That document is the test. It is not a performance review and there is no judgement of effort in it.
The buyout clause
Any two co-founders can open a review against a third for failing the obligations in their place. The named person has thirty days to put it right, in writing, with the team.
If it is not put right, the team buys them out. Unvested equity returns to the pool at nil. Vested equity is bought at the last agreed valuation, payable over twelve months. Temp & Major holds the register and executes the transfer, so nobody has to chase anybody.
Returned equity can be offered to a replacement co-founder or bought by the rest of the team pro rata.
- Who can open one
- Any two co-founders, or Temp & Major
- Notice
- 30 days to remedy
- Unvested
- Returns to the pool at nil
- Vested
- Bought at last agreed valuation, over 12 months
Leaving voluntarily
You can leave at any time. You keep what has vested and the unvested part returns to the pool on the same terms. Tell the team a month ahead if you can.
How this is executed today
Applying through this site starts a conversation, nothing more. It does not create an agreement, issue equity or reserve a place. If we take an application forward you get a term sheet with the split on it, and the register, the obligations document and the vesting schedule are drawn up and signed as paper contracts between the named individuals and Temp & Major.