Cortesi

Damon Cortesi: One challenge that every startup must face is that of balance among founders, especially early on. It's a juggling act that shows up in many different forms, and is a constant challenge that must be acknowledged and handled appropriately.

Similarly, another challenge is that of being open, honest and direct with one another. A company can not survive when the co-founders don't bring everything they can to the table. Whether it's discussions about equity split, defining the day's priorities, or providing feedback on a mockup, holding back will only hurt us.

After deciding on starting a company together, one of the first discussions we had was around equity split. How much did each of us bring to the company? And what was it worth?

For us, there were a few points to consider: reputation, intellectual property and skills.

This always gets somewhat sticky. A lot of the process is guesswork and there's no quantitative means for pinning down the numbers.

In many cases, a company is founded between two people who have a disparate amount of technical and business focus.

For Aviel and I, the primary difference lies in the fact that we thrive at opposite ends of the web app spectrum. Aviel loves to build beautiful interfaces, while I'd be happy building infrastructure all day.

That made an initial 50/50 split pretty easy for us. We'd both be up a creek without the skills of the other, and we complement each other pretty well.

But then there are the fuzzy numbers.

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Taking the startup plunge, and taking you along for the ride.

I'm pretty well known in the Seattle and social media communities, and there is a definite bonus to having that reputation as well as the relationships I've developed over the past two years. That adds a few points my way.

Investing in being open and chronicling our journey through writings and videos brought other challenges. Aviel worked in film before web development. Take a few points away from me.

I also have some previous intellectual property that I've developed over the course of the past couple of years that we decided to roll into our company. That adds a few more points back my way.

But wait, Aviel also brought in some IP, though not as much. That's a couple more points back his way.

At the end of the day, though, by being open and honest with each other, Aviel and I brought our different skills to the table and were able to reason out a fair equity split without too much chest beating.

Our big challenge though, and one unique to a company started by two extroverted developers, was the decision as to who should be CEO and CTO. The titles aren't too important at the moment, but they certainly will be as we begin to depend on each other for managing different responsibilities.

At the very least, you need someone to sign your corporate papers as the president and someone to sign them as the secretary. Both Aviel and I are pretty technically focused and it was easy to imagine either of us in the CTO role.

But I have slightly more experience as an entrepreneur, having started my own computer security company in 2008, and I felt that it made sense for me to assume the CEO role.

Still, struggling with the decision, Aviel and I met with a Seattle serial entrepreneur who has done this a few times before: Andy Sack of Founder's Co-op.

Andy posed a couple questions to us: First: "If a new hire came in for a technical position, which of you do you see interviewing him and making the overall decisions as it relates to technology?"

Aviel and I both knew this would be my role. I'm constantly evaluating new technology and have a lot of project management and related experience from my history in security consulting. And when it comes to the platforms we're going to end up developing on, Aviel is happy to interface with whatever and I'm pretty finicky about making the right choice for the job.

Second: "When it comes to providing overall direction of the company, product vision and focus on where we're heading, which of you would that be?"

As somebody with a severe case of "ooh shiny" when it comes to technology, Aviel would be this grounding person.

And at an early stage, the person in charge of "designing" the product is also the person interacting the most with potential customers -- a clear lead into running the business side of a company.

We wrote it all down, grabbed a few beers, and slept on it.

Our mind's didn't change overnight, and as simple as that, it was clear who would fulfill each role. Aviel would take on the CEO duties, and I'd become CTO.

Those aren't the only two key decisions that we've had to make in the past month of starting a company. And there's also the challenge of figuring out how to balance our personal lives with the seemingly endless responsibilities a new business brings. But more on that later.

Editor's Note: Startup Confidential is written by Aviel Ginzburg and Damon Cortesi. The series will follow the ups and downs of the Seattle technology entrepreneurs as they try to get their new business, tentatively called Untitled Startup, off the ground.