Equity Splits for Irish Co-Founders
Why most Irish co-founder equity splits are decided in the wrong twenty minutes — and the conversations that turn a fragile split into a defensible one.
Built for Irish founders · No account needed
PartnerReady is a preparation tool — not legal, financial, tax or investment advice and not a solicitor–client relationship. Always engage a qualified Irish solicitor before signing any binding agreement.
Most Irish co-founder equity splits are agreed over coffee, in the week the company is incorporated, by people who are still in their honeymoon period. The split is almost never wrong on day one. It almost always becomes wrong on day three hundred.
Three quiet signs the equity & ownership risk is structural
- 1
The split was decided before the roles were.
- 2
Nothing about the split is documented in a shareholders agreement.
- 3
There is no vesting and no good-leaver / bad-leaver mechanic in writing.
The conversations that turn this from a risk into a defended position
Idea, capital at risk, full-time commitment, opportunity cost and execution risk are all different inputs. Naming each one out loud — and assigning a weight — is what turns an emotional split into a defensible one.
Four years, twelve-month cliff, monthly vesting thereafter is the dominant structure. The cheapest version of this conversation is the one you have before you sign the Form A1.
It is technically possible. It is rarely commercially possible. The departing founder has no incentive to agree, and the negotiation is adversarial by definition.
Pre-money, post-money, ESOP top-up and pro-rata rights all interact. Founders who model the cap table once before incorporation almost never have a dilution dispute later.
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Most disputes begin with assumptions nobody realised they were making.
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Frequently asked questions
Is a 50/50 equity split a bad idea in Ireland?+
Not inherently. A 50/50 split paired with a vesting schedule, a reserved-matters list and a casting-vote mechanism operates well. A 50/50 split with none of those is the single most common dispute pattern in Irish early-stage companies.
When should we put founder vesting in place?+
Before incorporation if possible, and certainly before any external capital is raised. Vesting put in place under a term sheet is always the worst version of that conversation.
What if our split already feels unfair?+
It is fixable, but the fix is a renegotiation — not a unilateral correction. Most Irish solicitors would advise documenting the renegotiation in a side letter or an amended shareholders agreement before any further hires or investment.