Agile Partnerships

Create co-founder prenups and conditional vesting schedules to reward people based on what they bring to the party.

Agile Partnerships can also be used to transform established businesses or to transfer ownership to new management.

Protect your startup with an Agile Partnership™ - YouTube

Protect your startup with an Agile Partnership™

What's so good about agile partnerships?

Founders tend to incentivise co-founders and key hires with equity, but sometimes people walk away with a slice of the business before contributing what they promised. Agile Partnerships™ prevent this from happening, so nobody gets hurt. Setting one up costs a fraction of what lawyers typically charge.

How do agile partnerships work?

Establish some goals to determine how, when and what quantity of equity is released. People need to contribute fully to earn their maximum allocation of shares. Once the rules of the game have been decided, everybody will know what is expected of them, and the size of the prize.

What kind of conditions can be set?

You can set conditions for co-founders, such as achieving milestones, or staying with the company for an agreed period of time, so long as your Articles of Association have been drafted to enable this. We’ll help you figure out the best conditions - what’s most important is that the criteria is clear and not subjective.

Why choose Vestd for founder prenups

Guided scheme design

Vestd provides UK companies with a fully guided service for founder, to help you avoid any pitfalls. You’ll always get five-star support. Book a free consultation to learn more.

Tax efficient equity

You can minimise your tax burden by choosing the best method of distributing equity within your partnership. We’ll outline the various share and option schemes available to you.

Legal docs included

You can use the Vestd articles of association for free in the event that your articles don’t have the right provisions in place (to ensure that dilution and exits are handled correctly).

Frequently asked questions

• What is a founder prenup?

A founder prenup allows founders to spell out their business relationship in a contract which governs the release of equity based on what people actually bring to the party, as opposed to what they promise to bring. In the event that they part ways, the founder prenup helps founders reach a predetermined outcome.

• Do I need a founder prenup?

65% of startups fail due to interpersonal tensions within the management team, according to a study by Noam Wasserman, a Harvard Business School professor. While the best case scenario involves choosing a founder meticulously by asking the right questions, things can still go wrong. A founder prenup safeguards the business and determines the right rewards based on the founders’ contributions.

• How do Agile Partnerships help?

Agile Partnerships™ are bespoke equity-based agreements that tie equity rewards to agreed performance milestones. These agreements allow you to gradually release equity to key people (founders and other key employees), based on what they actually contribute. No more worrying about co-founders leaving with a big slice of the pie without fairly contributing to the business.

• How much equity should I give to my co-founder?

Dividing equity equally between co-founders might seem like the fairest thing to do, but (ironically) it often breeds inequity, and sometimes conflict. We’ve heard horror stories of founders blindly agreeing to a 50/50 split only to regret it later. There’s no one right answer, but we have put together a guide and tools to help you work out what’s right for your business.

• How do Agile Partnerships help me transform my business?

Agile Partnerships allow you to get everybody aligned, so they know what the equity rewards will be if they deliver what has been agreed.