Guides for the first steps
Clear answers to the questions founders ask at the start: finding a co-founder, equity and vesting, the founder agreement, the idea and the first customers.
- Practical, with numbers and sources
- Written for Europe
- Kept up to date
- Idea and customers
Idea validation: test your start-up idea before you build
Idea validation for founders: which assumptions to test, how to interview customers honestly, and the cheap tests that show if people will pay.
5 min readUpdated Oct 25, 2026 - Legal and company
Founder agreement: what to settle before you start
What belongs in a founder agreement: shares and vesting, roles, decisions, money, IP and leaving, and how it moves into GmbH or FlexCo documents.
6 min readUpdated Oct 25, 2026 - Co-founder
Co-founder conflict: causes, prevention, the way out
Why co-founder conflict kills more start-ups than competitors do, the five causes behind most of it, how to prevent it early, and what to do once it is there.
5 min readUpdated Oct 21, 2026 - Co-founder
Do you need a co-founder, or can you start alone?
Whether you need a co-founder depends on what you build and what you bring. The data on solo founders, the cases for and against, and how to decide.
5 min readUpdated Oct 21, 2026 - Co-founder
How to find a co-founder, also a technical one
How to find a co-founder: start with the gap, look where builders already are, use programmes and matching, test with a trial project, then agree the deal.
5 min readUpdated Oct 21, 2026 - Equity and vesting
Vesting for co-founders: cliff, reverse vesting, leavers
How founder vesting works: four years, a one-year cliff, reverse vesting in a GmbH or Austrian FlexCo, good and bad leaver clauses, and the mistakes to avoid.
6 min readUpdated Oct 21, 2026 - Equity and vesting
How to split equity between co-founders fairly
How to split equity between co-founders: what counts, why a quick 50/50 is often wrong, how vesting with a cliff protects the team, and when to decide.
6 min readUpdated Oct 21, 2026 - Co-founder
Questions to ask a potential co-founder before you commit
The questions to ask a potential co-founder about motivation, time, money, roles and equity, the answers that are red flags, and how a trial project settles it.
6 min readUpdated Oct 20, 2026