As a company, my concern would be that having more owners is... pretty expensive. If I'm going to give someone equity in my company, I need enough equity to make it worth the complexity. Not only that, but there is a lot of trust involved, too. To the best of my knowledge, once you give someone equity, they have power over your company. They can fuck you up.
Whenever anyone offers to buy some equity, I consider how much time will it take me to manage the transaction, (and then how much time will it take to manage the other owner ongoing.) - then, "how many hours, working as a consultant, would it take me to earn that amount of money free and clear."
It's amazing how often I'd spend fewer hours consulting to earn, free and clear, the amount of money that a smallish 'angel' type wanted to invest. And then I wouldn't have another owner, long-term, to manage.
Of course, right now, the company is mostly me, with employees and family having a small amount. there's a very high cost to getting your first outside investor, so someone who already has outside investors would have a lower additional per-investor cost than I do, so I guess it could work for others.
This is great: "It's amazing how often I'd spend fewer hours consulting to earn, free and clear, the amount of money that a smallish 'angel' type wanted to invest."
Thanks!
Whenever anyone offers to buy some equity, I consider how much time will it take me to manage the transaction, (and then how much time will it take to manage the other owner ongoing.) - then, "how many hours, working as a consultant, would it take me to earn that amount of money free and clear."
It's amazing how often I'd spend fewer hours consulting to earn, free and clear, the amount of money that a smallish 'angel' type wanted to invest. And then I wouldn't have another owner, long-term, to manage.
Of course, right now, the company is mostly me, with employees and family having a small amount. there's a very high cost to getting your first outside investor, so someone who already has outside investors would have a lower additional per-investor cost than I do, so I guess it could work for others.