Ask HN: Realised I put in much more work than cofounder. What to do?
- I and a friend started a company together in Feb, working remotely, 50%/50% split
- He is business/marketing, I am product developer who built early version few months prior to starting a company with him and we built the product on top of that.
- We put a vesting schedule in place, but it's pretty poorly written, specifying only what happens if person leaves, not specifying any duties or similar. (My first time doing that, be gentle!)
- Because it was almost exclusively product development till now I naturally had much more work than him.
- First few months he did not put in as much work due to personal reasons (I was ok with that since I had more work at that point anyways), but things are not improving and he realizes we are getting close to launch date
- Considering he had much less work to do than I did, he somehow still didn't manage to get things ready for launch, and it's starting to block me + I have to do his stuff. This is why I started to be nervous. I put in much more than he did so far.
- He is open to suggestions that would make things fair, but he would preferably do it in a way to keep 50% share I assume
- I am speaking with him about the situation as well and we both want to resolve it in the fairest way possible. I have faith that he will shine once we go live (in about a month), but I can't get rid of feeling that I may be screwing myself.
What is the normal way to deal with a situation like this? Essentially I would like to avoid the fact that I will do more work and then we will be equal. I am happy to be equal if the same amount of work was put in. And it may happen that in months after launch he will be much busier than me... But what if he just keeps on slacking? Advice?