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  • Why Startup Ideas Are Often Worthless | @Technori says:
    November 13, 2012 at 8:33 am

    […] let’s say that you email me and we work together to bring the idea to life. I deserve a reward in proportion to what I actually […]

  • Christos Purcell says:
    December 13, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    Hello, I’ve recently purchased your software and so far so good. But are there any lawyers in the UK or Greece who can help me get this legally binding?

  • Dan Bolton says:
    December 14, 2015 at 12:19 pm

    Hi Mike,
    Still trying to locate attorney in Canada to help with paperwork. Nearing launch date. This is second request. Thanks, Dan with Tea Journey http://www.teajourney.pub

  • Alexander Kohl says:
    January 16, 2016 at 5:06 pm

    Hi Mike, really love your work and think it can very equitably deal with changes in contributions. One thing that I keep wondering though is whether it should not also include a “interest” component. People who put money or time in early should be compensated for their patience to get to a return more than people who put something in just before profitability is reached. What are your thoughts on adding an interest component to each weeks calculation where the current balance of all slices receive an additional percentage amount? That way early contributions are valued proportionally higher the more patient they are. Or is that already compensated through the bigger slices they get in the beginning?
    Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
    Alexander

    • Mike Moyer says:
      January 16, 2016 at 5:12 pm

      Unless it’s a loan, interest is generally not customary. In the Slicing Pie model contributions are weighted using a multiplier. I recommend 4x for cash and 2x for non-cash. This normalizes the contributions and accounts for the time value of money (interest), taxes (cash is post-tax) and scarcity, It’s all built into the model.

      • Alexander Kohl says:
        January 17, 2016 at 1:42 pm

        I don’t quite get it. Imagine that I put in $100,000 to buy machinery at the start (as that was cash, we’d value it as $400,000). Then over the course of a year we manage to pay all employees at market rates through an additional $100,000 that someone else puts in (so their total slice is worth $400,000 as well). And then we need a last investment of $100,000 for another machine to be profitable. It is put in by a third person 12 months after starting the business. Now we all own 33% even though my initial investment had been at risk for 12 months and the last person’s money for only a day.
        Wouldn’t it be fairer to calculate a monthly “interest rate” for each slice to account for the fact that my money had been at risk longer? Each portion of interest could be added to the calculation of the slice.
        Or would that be double dipping?
        Thank you
        Alexander

        • Mike Moyer says:
          January 18, 2016 at 11:05 am

          Equity investments generally don’t accrue interest. Even if they did, the 4x multiplier far exceeds any logical interest rate so the increase is essentially a rounding error.

          As a practice, by the way, you should consider financing equipment rather than pay cash. This would help you reduce the number of slices in the pie.

          Here is an article that might help shed more light: http://slicingpie.com/the-magic-of-mutipliers/

  • Big Sonata says:
    March 16, 2016 at 9:38 am

    @mikemoyer:disqus Thank you so much for your great book. I really really enjoy it. We’re starting a JSC company now and we want to make founders be the decision makers (at least for 2 years ahead). How we can achieve that with Grunt Fund?

  • Ishan Jaithwa says:
    April 27, 2016 at 12:18 pm

    Hi Mike, Thank you so much for this great book of yours. Its my first time getting into the equity thing and cant explain how easy i felt after reading this book. I asked my partner to read it too so that we both can talk in same language. it makes so much sense and the best part is the more effort you put the more output you get. And thanks a lot for sharing a free copy of the full book as there was no way i could have got it in time otherwise. I was planning to contact a lawyer who would help me in getting this together in legal terms.

  • ravibala says:
    July 15, 2016 at 3:52 pm

    Mike: I referred a team I am mentoring to you for a call regarding a complicated agreement with a university. The founder said he has submitted a request using the request a call box to the right but did not get a response. I just wanted to make sure that the function was working on the website. Please let me know how I can make sure we all get on the phone soon. Thanks.

  • John Elbing says:
    September 22, 2016 at 7:02 am

    Hi Mike. Great read. Do you know of any lawyers in Switzerland that could help with setting up a grunt fund scheme? Thanks

  • Brock Predovich says:
    January 9, 2017 at 10:02 pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0820b727832d7b913924962b11c98d5c048caf5ea566679bf9e2f165c1d76fc5.jpg

    Hello Mike, a friend turned me onto your slicing pie book and I read it 3 day. Phenominal and solves big problems for me and every startup I’m sure. I’m implementing it right now into two of my ventures with partners. I went to purchase the LLC Agreement on your site and I got the attached message, figured you should know right away, hopefully I’m the only person this bug is happening to. I live in Indonesia so maybe that’s why.

  • Toni Aran says:
    June 28, 2017 at 5:25 pm

    Hi Mike,

    I recently started a festival business with a partner. It didn’t go well and my partner and myself lost $50,000 after year 1. He wants to leave the business for no good reason (quadrant D in your book) but he does not want to take care of the debt which I have agreed to take over. How should that debt be valued? At 4x like the rest of cash? Also, how do you value someone’s remaining equity if the business is in debt ($50,000)? Let’s say they have 7% equity after they forgo their hours, how would we fix a value to that?

  • Sanada Ryo Leo says:
    August 18, 2017 at 12:58 pm

    Hi Mike. The book was really helpful to talk with my potential co-founder to how to split the equity. I am about to incorporate Delaware C Corp. Looking at the “Lawyers & Contracts”, there seems to be only template for LLC regarding operating agreement. Is there any template for Delaware C Corp? Since my company is a typical tech company in Silicon Valley, I do need to set up my company with that form.

  • Adam Conley says:
    August 26, 2017 at 12:57 pm

    I’m kind of working backwards, what I tend to do is I buy what I like and then try to understand what it is later haha.

    I found this site through Reddit because right out from the start of incorporating I felt concerned about how to split the business ownership’s with the least amount of drama as possible.

    I looked at your SaaS and liked it so much I just bought it for all of us. But I realize I have no idea what this is all about, so I also bought the two books (Slicing Pie, Slicing Pie Handbook)

    My question, is there a difference between those two books I listed? Is there a book I should read first?

  • Raymond Lai says:
    October 15, 2017 at 2:05 pm

    Hi Mike,

    Do I need to buy Slicing Pie version 2.3 if I have already bought Slicing Pie Handbook? Thanks in advance for letting me know.

  • Mark Cappelletti says:
    February 12, 2018 at 8:40 am

    Hello Mike, does your system work for real estate syndicators?

  • Joseph Young says:
    February 21, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    “Like I mentioned earlier, I wrote a book on this topic and you can have a copy if you contact me through SlicingPie.com” I came for the book.

  • Benoit Maneckjee says:
    March 24, 2018 at 9:35 am

    Hi Mike, I haven’t read your book yet but completely understand where it comes from having started up 7 tech companies during my 33 year career as an entrepreneur. This time around I decided to keep it real and over the last 9 years developed a line of products which we manufacture locally and export across Canada and into the USA. With revenues now in the 1-2M range I am ready to start attracting equity partners to help me sustain the growth needed to get to the next level. I’m not sure the pie slicing model is appropriate since it appears my pie is baked since we have revenues, profits and salaries are being paid. Do you have an suggestions as what model I might use which allows potential partners to participate for say 6-12 months before deciding on whether to make them equity partners?

    • Mike Moyer says:
      March 24, 2018 at 12:23 pm

      Hi Benoit,

      You can allow people to buy in based on a 409A valuation. Equity should represent an investment so ask them to invest all or part of their salary or bonus.

      Slicing Pie is used before the company can be valued and everything is at-risk,

      -Mike

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