Tool · 15 min read

The Founders' Pie Calculator

Frank Demmler · Carnegie Mellon University Free Intermediate

This is the tool for the exact fight you are having: it scores each founder across Idea, Business Plan, Domain Expertise, and (crucially) Commitment and Risk, then hands you a number. Demmler states plainly that a founder who is all-in is worth far more than one who will 'sit on the sideline and be cheerleaders,' so you can move the argument off feelings and onto a shared spreadsheet. Run it twice: once at today's real commitment, once assuming the part-timer goes full-time, and the gap is your renegotiation.

  • Commitment and Risk is a weighted equity factor, not an afterthought: the person keeping a salary scores lower on it, and the math reflects that
  • Opportunity cost counts. Someone who forgoes a career to join full-time is contributing something the hedging co-founder is not, and the pie should show it
  • It turns a resentment conversation into a numbers conversation both of you fill in together, which is far easier to survive than 'I feel like I'm doing more'
Open on andrew.cmu.edu ↗

It answers 4 questions

  1. My co-founder and I are drifting on commitment. One of us is all-in, the other has a job. What do we do?
  2. Should I give a co-founder equity or a salary if they join after I've already started?
  3. We split equity 60/40 a year ago and it now feels wrong because one of us did far more. Can we still change it?
  4. How do I structure a startup when I have a non-technical co-founder and a technical one, so the entity and equity reflect real ownership?

Read with it

  1. The India-specific piece that tells you where the split actually gets signed. It separates the founders' agreement (equity,... Treelife Article · 10 min read Founder Vesting in a Shareholders' Agreement: What Startup Founders Must Know Treelife
  2. YC's counterpoint is worth hearing precisely because it pushes back on being stingy: if this person is a real co-founder doing... Y Combinator Article · 10 min read How to Split Equity Among Co-Founders Y Combinator
  3. This is the checklist and the template in one, written for Indian Pvt Ltd reality, not a US Delaware copy-paste. It walks all... iPleaders Template · 25 min read Co-Founder Agreement for Indian Startups: Clauses and Template (2026) iPleaders
  4. A concrete account of co-founders going full-time on a stagger, not in lockstep: Erich left his job in July 2018 to run sales... Indie Hackers Article · 12 min read Quitting Our Jobs to Follow Our Callings Alessandro DiSanto and Erich Kerekes
  5. This draws the exact line you are asking about with Indian numbers: a late-joining co-founder lands at 20 to 40 percent, while... EquityList Article · 18 min read ESOP 101: How to Set Up Your ESOP Pool as an Indian Company EquityList
  6. This walks the exact mechanics of moving equity from a 40% founder to a 60% one, and it splits the guidance into two scenarios:... SPZ Legal Article · 12 min read Founder Equity Split: Rebalancing Cap Tables SPZ Legal
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