I advise being generous with co-founder equity to motivate for the long term and to protect oneself in the process. Performance-based equity is a bad idea because it's difficult to set clear goals at the beginning of a tech startup, and those goals often change as the company pivots.

The best decision I ever made was giving half the equity to my co-founder to join the team, which ultimately led to our success. I believe that being super generous with early employee equity and attracting founder-quality people is crucial for the first ten employees.

It's frustrating to see founders overcompensate for not having a technical co-founder by relying on external developers, as this can hinder their chances of success.

Having a strong technical co-founder can make your startup unstoppable, especially if they are as committed and skilled as a top engineer.

If you're a non-technical founder, having a technical co-founder can significantly improve your ability to assess technical candidates.

As a CEO, I need to think about what will keep my co-founder motivated during tough times, not just what makes them happy today.

If you hire an outside CEO, they usually receive around 5% equity, while an outside CTO or COO typically gets about 3%.

Recruiting a technical co-founder is the most effective way to create value when starting a tech startup, even if you have some technical skills yourself.

I got really lucky with my co-founders; I can't provide a guide on how to pick them because it just fell into my lap.