This Week in Startups · Thursday, September 10, 2026
Jason Calacanis highlights that founder vesting isn't just for venture capitalists; it can also protect co-founders from each other. If one co-founder underperforms or leaves for a higher-paying job, vesting ensures they don't walk away with a disproportionate share of the company's equity.
“There might be a reason to include vesting, uh, to protect amongst the founders themselves, right? If you have two or more co-founders, one of them then turns out, maybe they're not pulling their weight, or they decide, whoa, this startup stuff is crazy. That's not exactly, it looked like fun. This isn't what I had in mind, or one of them gets lured away by some big comp package that is throwing out. You don't want them walking away with fully vested stock owning 50% of the company, right?”
“So, even if you're not going to pursue investor funding, you may want to think about protecting, uh, these each other.”