u/BeeCrafty9690

In my spare time for the past couple months, me and two other friends have started working on a business startup. It was an idea that I had and invited them to join. Everything is very unofficial rn, we try and keep up with acitvity logs and such but we’re not registered as a business yet or have any contracts signed. When discussing it (informally) I told them it would be a 3-equal-owners type thing were we’d have equal equity. Since saying that a lot has changed I must admit.

It’s very clear I’m the leader, I handle all oversight, I set work and homework, I double check all their work, I set all meeting dates and contents, all accounts belong to me and I share the files and stuff with them, I design the website/app layout. It’s not something I’m mad at. Admittedly, I like being in the leadership position-it’s not a control thing it’s just kinda clear I take it the most seriously and i’d have anxiety putting someone else in charge because I’m way more keen on spending hours and hours on it. I’d feel uneasy if someone else was in charge because of this.

Very quietly some small resentment has built, not towards the clear hierarchy, but towards their clear carelessness, reliance on me, and the equity situation. One friend has a clear role in coding (something I can’t do) and he does all the work to a pretty high standard. The other is pretty lazy. He needs me to walk him through simple stuff and he acts like i’m a teacher setting him homework. He gives me cheap excuses as to why the three paragraphs I gave him 4 days to do still isn’t done 2 weeks later and keeps on using AI even when I tell him not to. It was really bad at one point we kept arguing over it but I gave up and told him to basically just leave the project and this scared him straight but if im being honest idk what role to give him. Right now i just treat him like an intern and give spare work but I really just don’t know.

Right now they’re both on hiatus (both for valid reason) and in the meantime I’m doing some reorganising and working on the business model. I was thinking when we get back I’d address the elephant in the room. I’d tell them from now on it makes way more sense and it’s just better when meeting angels and such to call myself the leader, I already do all the talking at networking events and it would look silly to act like i’m not (im not gonna say the silly part don’t worry). However idk how to address the equity thing. I was thinking just being straight up and telling them, everyone label and log everything you do and when the time comes we’ll split shares according to that. (I know the title is misleading-I’m not kicking them out or ignoring their input). Problem is this makes me look like im going back on our informal agreement and it makes me look greedy since this would inevitably mean I get the most equity (because I do the most work).

Should I just swallow my fear and do it or is there a better way to go about this? also does anyone have any other advice about the situation as a whole i’m pretty lost here I’m learning business as I go.

In my spare time for the past couple months, me and two other friends have started working on a business startup. It was an idea that I had and invited them to join. Everything is very unofficial rn, we try and keep up with acitvity logs and such but we’re not registered as a business yet or have any contracts signed. When discussing it (informally) I told them it would be a 3-equal-owners type thing were we’d have equal equity. Since saying that a lot has changed I must admit.

It’s very clear I’m the leader, I handle all oversight, I set work and homework, I double check all their work, I set all meeting dates and contents, all accounts belong to me and I share the files and stuff with them, I design the website/app layout. It’s not something I’m mad at. Admittedly, I like being in the leadership position-it’s not a control thing it’s just kinda clear I take it the most seriously and i’d have anxiety putting someone else in charge because I’m way more keen on spending hours and hours on it. I’d feel uneasy if someone else was in charge because of this.

Very quietly some small resentment has built, not towards the clear hierarchy, but towards their clear carelessness, reliance on me, and the equity situation. One friend has a clear role in coding (something I can’t do) and he does all the work to a pretty high standard. The other is pretty lazy. He needs me to walk him through simple stuff and he acts like i’m a teacher setting him homework. He gives me cheap excuses as to why the three paragraphs I gave him 4 days to do still isn’t done 2 weeks later and keeps on using AI even when I tell him not to. It was really bad at one point we kept arguing over it but I gave up and told him to basically just leave the project and this scared him straight but if im being honest idk what role to give him. Right now i just treat him like an intern and give spare work but I really just don’t know.

Right now they’re both on hiatus (both for valid reason) and in the meantime I’m doing some reorganising and working on the business model. I was thinking when we get back I’d address the elephant in the room. I’d tell them from now on it makes way more sense and it’s just better when meeting angels and such to call myself the leader, I already do all the talking at networking events and it would look silly to act like i’m not (im not gonna say the silly part don’t worry). However idk how to address the equity thing. I was thinking just being straight up and telling them, everyone label and log everything you do and when the time comes we’ll split shares according to that. (I know the title is misleading-I’m not kicking them out or ignoring their input). Problem is this makes me look like im going back on our informal agreement and it makes me look greedy since this would inevitably mean I get the most equity (because I do the most work).

Should I just swallow my fear and do it or is there a better way to go about this? also does anyone have any other advice about the situation as a whole i’m pretty lost here I’m learning business as I go.