โ Honest answers
The real
questions you'll have.
Cap table mechanics, decision rights, IP, exit thinking โ answered plainly so you can decide before the intro call.
How is this different from hiring a CTO or agency? +
An agency optimizes for billable hours. A CTO needs salary. I optimize for the venture's long-term value because I own equity. We're aligned on shipping the right thing, not the most billable thing. And I bring a 6-person team โ not a single hire.
What's your typical equity ask? +
Depends on capital + stage. 15โ25% if you're pre-product and pre-revenue. 10โ15% if you have early traction. 5โ10% if you have Series A funding ready. Always vested over 3โ4 years with a 1-year cliff.
Who has decision rights? +
Joint until Series A: product, hiring, fundraise, pricing. Single-veto on either side for "bet the company" calls. After Series A, you (the domain founder) drive โ I move to board / advisor.
What about IP? +
The venture owns the IP. I own my frameworks, templates, internal tooling โ the meta-stack that I bring to every build. We document the boundary clearly in the term sheet.
Can you only work with one partner at a time? +
I take two co-build partnerships per year, max. Project collaborations are quarterly limited (~4/year). Investor relationships are open-ended. The point: depth over breadth.
What if it doesn't work out? +
The 30-day trial sprint is built for this. Either side can walk away in month 1 with no equity vesting and no hard feelings. After that, standard cliff + vesting protections apply. Most failed partnerships fail in the diligence week โ and that's by design.
Do you have a geographic preference? +
I'm in Nilphamari, Bangladesh, with ops across BD, UK, US, EU. I prefer founders who can do a quarterly in-person sprint โ but Remote-First works fine. Time zone overlap of 4+ hours is the minimum for daily Slack.
What about exit thinking? +
I'm not in the "lifestyle business" market โ I take partnerships where there's a real path to $10M+ ARR or strategic exit. Acquisition, IPO, or buyback are all fine outcomes. Drag-along / tag-along clauses in every term sheet so we're aligned on liquidity events.