Getting a partner onboard
I was approached by a freelancer i have worked before with to work together as a company. I would be interested in partnering with him. But need some advice on how to get into this partnership. My firm provides design and marketing services. This guy is a designer. Below is a brief about what we are looking from this partnership.
My startup is a registered firm and i am working full time on it. The guy i am talking to has been working as a freelancer and has a decent client base. He is an online brand (not registered anywhere). We are planning to merge our businesses. This guy is full time working at an MNC. He will not be quitting anytime soon.
I would like to retain my company name as over time I have been able to build a reputation with enterprises. Also i don't want to get into the hassle of registering a company and any government related work again. This guy also wants to retain the online brand he has been working under.
What is the best way we can make this partnership happen? I am ready for 50% partnership.
Thanks
Anshul
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If you both want to protect your brand, you'll need to merge the names somehow, if they are compatible, or create a new business and use your existing brands to drive prospects to it. – Steve Jones 11 years ago
1 Answer
50% for a designer? Sounds like a stupid waste of equity if you ask me. Designers are low level folks, bottom of the mill. Its marketing / sales where good equity is spent. Coders, Designers, IT guys are valuable, but also a dime a dozen. Keep that in mind before you go off chopping off your arm to and handicapping yoruself to bring on someone who already seems comfortable with what they are earning solo..
To answer your question. Find a partner who shares your passion, vision and is a HARD WORKER. hire designers and replaceable folks or bring them on with realistic equity for the work they perform.
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50% for a marketing/sales guy? Sounds like a stupid generalization to me. There are plenty of examples of shitty sales people (think people who can't get a job and so become recruiters that work on commission instead, or just sales people in general that work at low wages). Similarly there are tonnes of shitty coders that might work at $3/hr. You just cannot generalize - its more a function of the quality of value the individual delivers, whatever be his field. For every example of a marketing/sales guy who earned millions from equity, I'll show you at least one coder who did too. – Code Monkey 11 years ago
