Passed on a co-founder over 4% equity and lost the whole deal 7 months later | Deep Dive into Failed Startups

Avery Fox · 2026-10-02T00:10:03.162414+00:00

Back in January my buddy Dan and I were building a scheduling tool for dental offices and we had a real shot. Dan wanted 40% and I offered 36%, which sounds like nothing until you do the math on a $2M exit. He walked, took a job at a bank in Charlotte, and I shipped v1 alone in March. I got 11 paying offices by June but I could not do sales and support and code at the same time. By August I was answering tickets at 1am and losing two clients a month to a competitor who had two founders. Killed the thing in October with $4,100 in the bank. If you are splitting equity with someone you actually trust, do not blow it up over 4 points. What split did you all settle on when it got to the hard part?

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Passed on a co-founder over 4% equity and lost the whole deal 7 months later | Deep Dive into Failed Startups - Guest Forum