Ask HN: What to do about non-performing "founder"
We started up w/one cofounder accepting reduced equity for the promise of a salary after 3-4 months.
This cofounder had been very early stage employee in other startups with me. However, now going in as a cofounder and having to accept no pay, was apparently a bridge too far.
His work was uncharacteristically sloppy and low output. Clearly, he was sinking under the stress, almost from day one.
When it got to 3 months, almost to the day, he demanded that he had to start drawing a salary immediately. We weren't making any money, or even ready for VC angel money, so my other partner (there are three of us), said we'd cover it.
Certainly one of the reasons we were not ready for looking for seed money was due to this co-founders non-performance.
When it came time for us to decide whether we would cover partner #3 another month, we declined, it really just wasn't worth it for the reduced output.
As a result, the paid cofounder essentially pushed himself back from the keyboard on the last day of the month. He has been slightly helpful since then, but more along turning over stuff.
Amazingly enough, this has all been relatively amicable - I think my other partner and I both recognize that this guy just couldn't hold up under the strain.
But I'm also feeling a little abused now, as we sort of nursed/mollycoddled him along. And we haven't signed off on incorporation docs yet, although they are all drawn up.
This is a stupid mess. At one point, I want to really dock the guy's equity for non-performance. OTOH, deal's a deal, and over time, assuming all goes well, he'll get increasingly diluted.
What would you guys do? Yes, it was stupid not to have a performance/clawback provision in place, but the three of us had worked together before for several years, and there had never been a blip or complaint.