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Co-Founder Separation

Read the agreements, work out vested shares, agree fair terms with proper counsel, hand over the role, tell the team, customers and investors well, and keep the company whole after a co-founder leaves.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Co-Founder Separation, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

200

Starter tasks

🚀 Founding & Startups

Co-Founder Separation

Handling a co-founder's departure fairly, from equity and role handover to telling the team and protecting the company.

  1. Reading the founder agreement before any exit talk
  2. Vested and unvested share position on the leaving date
  3. Choosing counsel for the company in the separation
  4. Separation goals and walk-away points
  5. Confidential separation working group
  6. Dated record of separation conversations
  7. Separation risk register
  8. Leaving date and handover window
  9. Planning the first conversation about leaving
  10. Monday separation workstream review
  11. Daily handover sessions with the departing founder
  12. Access and credentials offboarding
  13. Customer and partner relationship transfer
  14. Team pulse in the weeks after the announcement
  15. Investor and board updates through the separation
  16. Former co-founder as a shareholder
  17. Separation obligations calendar
  18. Share register and cap table after the exit
  19. Weekly debrief with a trusted outsider
  20. Good leaver and bad leaver terms explained
  21. How founder share buybacks work
  22. Tax questions to take to an adviser
  23. Negotiation preparation for separation terms
  24. Practising the hard conversations
  25. IP and confidentiality checks on departure
  26. Agreed departure story
  27. Buyback, keep or transfer decision for vested shares
  28. Future role for the departing founder
  29. Separation agreement heads of terms
  30. Re-vesting for the remaining founders
  31. Reallocating the departed founder's responsibilities
  32. Filling the departed founder's role
  33. Using returned shares to refresh the option pool
  34. Mediation for a contested departure
  35. Board meeting to approve the separation
  36. Telling the team on announcement day
  37. Customer and partner notification day
  38. Public announcement and profile updates
  39. Signing day and closing checklist
  40. Last day and farewell for the departing founder
  41. When you are the co-founder who is leaving
  42. Separating from a co-founder who is your partner
  43. Co-founder leaving before the paperwork exists
  44. One of three founders leaving
  45. Co-founder unable to continue through illness or bereavement
  46. Departure in the middle of a fundraise
  47. Removing a co-founder who does not want to leave
  48. Secondary sale of a departed founder's shares
  49. Due diligence file on the separation
  50. Lessons review and stronger leaver terms

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Reading the founder agreement before any exit talk

Most separations go wrong because both founders argue from memory about what they agreed years ago. Before a single conversation about leaving, find and read every document that governs founder shares and roles: the shareholders' agreement, share purchase or restricted stock agreements, the articles or bylaws, employment contracts and IP assignments.

First tasks

  • Collect every signed founder, shareholder and share purchase document into one folder
  • Summarise the vesting, leaver, transfer and consent clauses on one page
  • Mark each document as signed, unsigned or missing
  • List the clauses you need counsel to explain

Vested and unvested share position on the leaving date

The single number both sides will anchor on is how many shares the departing founder has earned by the leaving date. Working it out from the vesting start date, cliff, monthly or quarterly increments and any acceleration terms, and getting counsel to check it, stops a disagreement over arithmetic from poisoning everything else.

First tasks

  • Write down the vesting start date, cliff and increment from the signed agreement
  • Calculate vested and unvested shares for three possible leaving dates
  • Check whether any acceleration clause could apply to this departure
  • Send the workings to counsel and ask them to confirm the numbers

Choosing counsel for the company in the separation

The lawyer who incorporated the company often cannot act for one founder against another, and a departing founder who is also a director may be conflicted on the company side too. Picking counsel who acts clearly for the company, and encouraging the departing founder to take their own advice, protects both the terms and the relationship.

First tasks

  • Ask the company's current lawyer whether they have a conflict in this separation
  • Shortlist three firms that have handled founder departures
  • Compare scope, fee estimates and who would do the work
  • Sign an engagement letter that names the company as the client

Make it yours.

Install Co-Founder Separation, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.