3 template sources for your founders agreement [with a vesting clause]
By: Arik Marmorstein, Spectroomz founder
What is a Founders’ Agreement
It’s an agreement that forms the rights and obligations of you and your co-founders towards each-other and towards the company. It’s smart to sign a founders agreement when you and your co-founder decide to start a startup (or any company). One example of what this agreement includes is the vesting clause, which says each founder earns equity in the company on a monthly basis (as opposed to getting it all in beginning). This keeps each founder motivated, as well as prevents a situation in which a founder will hold significant equity even though he/she left the company early.
Founders’ agreement templates
There are plenty of founders agreement templates out there, here are three notable sources:
Avodocs lets you create and customize legal documents for your startup by asking you questions and creating a founders agreement based on your answers. You can get a free template here.
You can find several free templates on Docracy for free.
RocketLawyer is a paid option, but you have 7 days free trial.
Recommended reasources for founders
Use this tool to validate your business idea (Based on Y-combinator’s Kevin Hale's lecture)