A founders agreement is the document co-founders write while the relationship is still good, precisely because that is the only time they can think about a bad outcome fairly. It covers equity split, vesting, roles and what happens if someone leaves, questions that are easy to answer generously in month one and nearly impossible to answer fairly after a falling out. Most founding teams either skip it entirely on a verbal handshake, or copy a template built for a very different company structure and never actually customise the vesting or exit terms to their real situation.
The 18 templates here, divided across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, treat a founders agreement as the document that protects the company and the relationship, not just a legal formality. The ChatGPT prompts cover full agreements, plain-language summaries and equity-split conversations. The Claude prompts handle vesting schedules, roles and decision rights, and departure scenarios that need to be exact. The Gemini prompts research jurisdiction norms and comparable startup structures so the agreement reflects real current practice. As with any founding document, business proposal tools for founders only go so far, this is a drafting starting point, not legal advice.
Why AI Works Well For Founders Agreements
A founders agreement is a short document covering a small number of decisions that carry outsized consequences years later. AI handles that combination well once the brief is honest about the actual contribution and commitment level of each founder, not a simple even split by default.
Each Model Has A Different Edge
ChatGPT is the most flexible for a first draft and plain-language summaries. Claude is strongest on vesting schedules and departure scenarios that need to be precise. Gemini is the right choice when current startup norms or jurisdiction context should shape the terms.
Equal Is Not Always Fair
A default 50/50 split feels fair in the founding moment but does not always reflect who is full-time, who brought the idea, or who is taking the bigger financial risk. Have the honest conversation before defaulting to even, even if even ends up being the right answer.
Vesting Protects Everyone, Including The Founder It Applies To
Vesting is not a sign of distrust, it protects every founder from a co-founder who leaves early while still holding a full, unearned stake. The founder who resists vesting the most is usually the one who benefits most from having it.
This Is A Drafting Starting Point, Not Legal Advice
Every template below produces a strong first draft. Have a qualified startup lawyer review any founders agreement before it is signed, particularly the equity, vesting and IP assignment sections, and confirm who actually has signatory authority once the company is incorporated.
ChatGPT Prompts For Founders Agreements
ChatGPT is the flexible workhorse for a first founders agreement draft, the same discipline that belongs in every founding-stage contract. It handles full agreements, plain-language summaries and equity-split conversation starters. These six ChatGPT prompts for founders agreement writing cover the situations co-founding teams face when formalising their company. Each ChatGPT prompt for founders agreement below is built around a specific scenario, so you can pick the right ChatGPT prompt for founders agreement for the job rather than starting from a blank page.
1. Full Founders Agreement From Scratch
Act as a startup lawyer's drafting assistant producing a
standard founders agreement.
Context:
- Founders: [names and roles, e.g. CEO, CTO]
- Equity split agreed: [percentages]
- Vesting: [standard 4-year with 1-year cliff, or your terms]
- Time commitment: [full-time, part-time, for each founder]
- IP contributed by each founder before incorporation, if any:
[describe]
Write a complete founders agreement.
Sections:
1. Roles and responsibilities of each founder
2. Equity split and basis for it
3. Vesting schedule, including cliff
4. IP assignment, all company-related IP assigns to the company
5. Decision rights, routine versus major decisions
6. Departure scenarios: voluntary, for cause, and unvested equity
treatment
7. Confidentiality and non-compete, to the extent enforceable
8. Dispute resolution
9. Signature blocks
Rules: match vesting and equity terms to what was actually agreed,
do not default to generic splits. Flag as a drafting starting
point requiring legal review.Where it works best: ChatGPT produces a complete, correctly structured agreement in one pass, covering the sections founding teams most often skip when working from a verbal handshake. This is the ChatGPT prompt for founders agreement most teams reach for first.
Best for: Formalising a founding team’s terms before incorporation or shortly after.
Turn the signed agreement into your first investor document in 60 seconds
Paste your website URL and Proposal.biz pulls your brand into a Smart Content Library, so the investor pitch and every document that follows the founders agreement look professional from day one.
2. Plain-Language Summary Of A Founders Agreement
You are explaining a draft or signed founders agreement
to a co-founder without a legal background.
Founders agreement text:
[paste the agreement, or the sections in question]
Task:
Write a plain-language summary of what this agreement actually
commits each founder to.
Output:
- The equity split and how vesting works, in plain terms
- Who decides what, day to day versus major decisions
- What happens to equity if a founder leaves, voluntarily or for
cause
- What each founder is responsible for
Rules: no legal jargon. This is a plain-language summary, not
legal advice.Where it works best: ChatGPT translates dense clause language into something both founders can actually discuss and confirm they understand before signing.
Best for: Making sure every founder genuinely understands the agreement, not just the founder who drafted it.
3. Equity Split Conversation Starter
You are a startup advisor helping co-founders have the
honest conversation about equity split before drafting anything.
Context:
Founders: [names and roles]
Contribution factors to weigh: [idea origin, capital contributed,
time commitment, relevant experience, whatever applies]
Current instinct: [e.g. even split, or a specific proposed split]
Task:
Write a structured set of questions to guide an honest equity
split conversation between co-founders.
Output:
- 5-7 direct questions covering contribution, commitment, risk,
and expectations
- A brief note on common equity split frameworks (even split,
weighted by contribution, dynamic equity) and when each tends
to fit
Rules: do not recommend a specific split, this is a framework for
the founders' own honest conversation, not a calculator.Where it works best: ChatGPT structures a genuinely useful conversation framework rather than prescribing a formula, which respects that the right split depends on facts only the founders themselves know.
Best for: Before any equity number is written down, while the conversation is still genuinely open.
4. Rewrite A One-Sided Draft To Be Fair
You are a startup advisor reviewing a founders agreement
draft that one founder wrote, checking it treats all founders
fairly.
Draft: [paste it]
Who drafted it: [which founder]
Task:
Review this draft for terms that might unintentionally favour the
drafting founder, and propose balanced alternatives.
Instructions:
- Flag any clause that gives the drafting founder outsized control
or protection compared to co-founders.
- Propose a balanced version of each flagged clause.
- Note where a term might be reasonable given genuinely different
contributions, not every asymmetry is unfair, but it should be
a deliberate choice, not an accident of who held the pen.Where it works best: ChatGPT is useful for a neutral-seeming check on a draft, though every founder should also have this reviewed by their own advisor before relying on it fully.
Best for: A sanity check before a draft written by one founder is presented to the others for signature.
5. IP Assignment Clause
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant writing
the intellectual property assignment clause of a founders
agreement.
Context:
Founders: [names]
Any IP created before incorporation: [describe, if applicable]
Any IP a founder might create outside the company in a related
field: [describe, if relevant]
Write an IP assignment clause.
Rules:
- All company-related IP created by any founder assigns to the
company, stated clearly.
- Address pre-incorporation IP explicitly, confirming it is
assigned or licensed to the company.
- If a founder has side work in a related field, address the
boundary clearly to avoid future disputes.
- Flag as a drafting starting point requiring legal review.Where it works best: ChatGPT covers pre-incorporation IP and side-work boundaries explicitly, gaps that generic founder agreement templates frequently leave unaddressed.
Best for: Technical co-founders or any team where IP existed before the company was formally incorporated.
6. Founders Agreement Amendment (Bonus)
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant updating a
founders agreement because circumstances have changed.
Context:
Original agreement: [paste key terms or the full document]
What is changing: [a founder moving to part-time, a new founder
joining, a role change]
Effective date: [date]
Write a founders agreement amendment.
Rules:
- Reference the original agreement and confirm what stays the
same.
- State clearly what changes and from when.
- If equity or vesting changes, be explicit about the new terms.
- All founders sign the amendment.Where it works best: ChatGPT writes a clean, scoped amendment quickly rather than requiring a full re-draft when circumstances genuinely change.
Best for: An existing founding team whose agreement needs updating for a role or commitment change, not a brand new company.
Claude Prompts For Founders Agreements
Claude is the right model when vesting schedules, decision rights or departure scenarios need to be precise rather than approximate, a common need for SaaS founding teams preparing for their first raise. These six Claude prompts for founders agreement writing handle the situations where precision matters most. Each Claude prompt for founders agreement below is built around a specific scenario, so you can pick the right Claude prompt for founders agreement for the job rather than starting from a blank page.
1. Full Founders Agreement From A Messy Founder Conversation
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant turning a
rough founder conversation into a precise agreement.
[paste notes, a Slack thread, or a summary of what the founders
discussed and agreed, however unstructured]
Task:
Turn this into a complete, correctly structured founders agreement.
Instructions:
- Pull out the actual equity split, roles and any vesting
discussion from the notes.
- Where the conversation was vague about vesting, decision rights,
or departure terms, propose a reasonable, commonly used default
and label it clearly as something to confirm with all founders.
- Produce the full agreement: roles, equity, vesting, IP
assignment, decision rights, departure scenarios, signatures.
Flag as a drafting starting point requiring legal review before
any founder signs it.Where it works best: Claude reads an unstructured founder conversation faithfully and proposes sound, clearly labelled defaults for anything left genuinely undecided. This is the Claude prompt for founders agreement most teams reach for first.
Best for: The common real case: founders have talked through terms informally and nothing is written down yet.
Know exactly when your co-founder reviews the agreement
Send the founders agreement as a trackable link instead of a flat PDF, and see exactly when each founder opened it, so nothing sits unread before a signing deadline.
2. Vesting Schedule With Cliff And Acceleration
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant writing a
precise vesting schedule.
Context:
Standard term: [e.g. 4 years, monthly vesting after a 1-year cliff]
Acceleration provisions wanted: [e.g. single-trigger or
double-trigger acceleration on acquisition, or none]
Founders and any differing start dates: [if vesting starts at
different times per founder]
Task:
Write a vesting schedule clause.
Requirements:
- State the cliff and ongoing vesting cadence precisely.
- If acceleration applies, define the trigger exactly (e.g.
double-trigger: acquisition plus involuntary termination within
a defined window).
- Address what happens to unvested equity if a founder leaves
before the cliff versus after.
- If founders have different start dates, calculate each vesting
schedule individually.
Explain briefly why the acceleration structure chosen, if any,
is reasonable.Where it works best: Claude reasons carefully about acceleration trigger definitions, a detail that is easy to state vaguely and expensive to get wrong when an acquisition actually happens.
Best for: The single clause most founders agreements need but many informal handshake deals never actually specify.
3. Departure Scenarios: Voluntary, For Cause, And Death Or Disability
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant writing
the departure section of a founders agreement, covering every
realistic scenario.
Context:
Vesting terms: [from the vesting schedule]
Company's repurchase rights preference, if any: [right to buy
back unvested or even vested equity on departure]
Task:
Write a departure scenarios clause covering:
- Voluntary departure: notice expected, unvested equity forfeited,
vested equity treatment
- Termination for cause: definition of cause, and equity
consequences
- Death or disability: how equity is handled, often with different
treatment than a voluntary departure
- Company repurchase rights, if applicable, at what price and
under what timeline
Rules: define "cause" specifically rather than leaving it vague,
that definition is where disputes concentrate.Where it works best: Claude covers scenarios founders rarely want to think about, death, disability, termination for cause, with the same rigour as the scenarios they do want to think about.
Best for: The section that protects a founding team through genuinely difficult, low-probability but high-stakes situations.
4. Decision Rights And Deadlock Resolution
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant writing
the governance section of a founders agreement for a two or
three-person founding team.
Context:
Number of founders: [count]
Roles: [e.g. CEO, CTO]
Types of decisions that come up: [list routine and major examples]
Task:
Write a decision rights and deadlock resolution clause.
Requirements:
- Categorise decisions into routine (delegated by role) and major
(requiring founder agreement), with examples of each.
- For an even number of founders, define a specific deadlock
resolution process, since a tie vote is a real risk with two
founders.
- State who has final say in their functional area for
day-to-day matters.
Explain briefly why the deadlock process chosen fits a small
founding team.Where it works best: Claude specifically addresses the deadlock risk that a two-founder team faces on every tied vote, a scenario generic governance templates built for larger boards often ignore.
Best for: Two-founder teams, where deadlock is a structural risk that needs an explicit resolution mechanism, not an assumption it will not happen.
5. Founders Agreement Redline Against An Investor’s Requested Changes
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant reviewing
changes an investor has requested to the founders agreement as
part of a financing round.
Our current founders agreement: [paste key terms or the full
document]
Investor's requested changes: [paste what they are asking for]
Task:
Compare the two and produce a summary for the founding team.
Output:
- A list of every material difference the investor is requesting
- For each, a plain-language explanation of what it means for the
founders
- A note on which changes are standard for this stage of financing
and which are worth pushing back on
Rules: be precise. Flag anything that would materially change
founder control or economics.Where it works best: Claude compares two documents accurately and translates investor-requested legal changes into terms the founding team can actually evaluate together.
Best for: Financing rounds where investors request changes to existing founder arrangements as a condition of the deal.
6. Tighten An Existing Founders Agreement Draft
You are a careful editor of legal drafting, working on
a founders agreement.
Draft:
[paste the full draft]
Task:
Tighten this draft without changing its legal substance.
Instructions:
- Simplify overly dense sentences without losing precision.
- Flag any clause that is genuinely ambiguous, particularly around
vesting, departure, or decision rights, since that is
substantive, not stylistic.
- Note anything missing compared to a standard founders agreement
(e.g. no cliff defined, no deadlock resolution).
- Do not change equity splits or terms, only clarity.
Output:
1. The tightened draft.
2. A list of anything flagged as ambiguous or missing, for legal
review before this goes any further.Where it works best: Claude separates genuine clarity edits from substantive gaps in vesting or departure terms, and flags the latter explicitly rather than quietly resolving them.
Best for: A draft that covers the right topics but reads as dense or was assembled from mismatched template sources.
Gemini Prompts For Founders Agreements
Gemini’s live web grounding is the right tool when current startup norms or jurisdiction context should inform the agreement before it is finalised and sent for e-signature. These six Gemini prompts for founders agreement writing turn a generic draft into one grounded in real current practice. Each Gemini prompt for founders agreement below is built around a specific scenario, so you can pick the right Gemini prompt for founders agreement for the job rather than starting from a blank page.
1. Research-Backed Current Startup Norms
You are a startup advisor who checks current market
norms before finalising founder terms.
Step 1: Research current typical practice for [specific term,
e.g. vesting schedules, equity splits for technical versus
business co-founders] at [company stage, e.g. pre-seed]. Find:
- Commonly used structures and ranges
- Sources, ideally recent startup legal or accelerator guidance
Step 2: Write a short summary of current norms, then flag whether
our proposed terms are in line.
Our proposed terms: [paste them]
Requirements: cite sources. If you cannot verify something, say
so rather than guessing. This turns a generic AI prompt for
founders agreement writing into one grounded in actual current
practice.Where it works best: Gemini’s live web grounding surfaces current startup norms, which shift over time, rather than relying on a static, possibly dated sense of what is typical. This is the Gemini prompt for founders agreement most teams reach for first.
Best for: Checking equity splits or vesting terms against what is actually standard right now, not five years ago.
Draft, send and e-sign the whole founding document set in one window
Keep the founders agreement and everything that follows, IP assignments, investor documents, in one place: AI-assisted drafting, automatic branding, a trackable link to send, and built-in e-signature.
2. Jurisdiction-Specific Founder Agreement Considerations
You are a startup lawyer's drafting assistant checking
jurisdiction-specific considerations for a founders agreement.
Step 1: Research founders agreement or shareholder agreement norms
in [jurisdiction] relevant to a [company type, e.g. Delaware C-corp,
UK Ltd] startup. Find:
- Any jurisdiction-specific requirements or common practices
- How enforceable non-compete or similar restrictive provisions
typically are in this jurisdiction
Step 2: Write a short note on what our agreement should account
for given this jurisdiction.
Rules: cite sources. This is informational context, not legal
advice, and should be confirmed with local counsel.Where it works best: Gemini’s web grounding surfaces jurisdiction-specific enforceability considerations, particularly around restrictive covenants, that vary significantly and a generic template would not know to flag.
Best for: Founding teams incorporating outside their home jurisdiction, or with founders based in different countries.
3. Comparable Startup Equity Split Research
You are an analyst researching how comparable founding
teams have split equity, so ours is grounded in realistic
precedent.
Step 1: Research publicly discussed equity split approaches for
[similar situation, e.g. two co-founders with one technical and
one business background, or a founder joining after the company
started]. Find:
- Commonly discussed frameworks and ranges
- Sources, startup advisors, accelerator content, founder
interviews
Step 2: Write a short summary of what is commonly discussed for
a situation like ours.
Rules: cite sources. This is context for the founders' own
decision, not a recommendation of a specific split.Where it works best: Gemini surfaces real, current commentary on how comparable teams have approached the same hard conversation, useful context without prescribing an answer.
Best for: Founding teams looking for grounded context before their own equity split conversation, not a formula to defer to.
4. Accelerator Or Incubator Standard Terms Check
You are a startup advisor checking whether a specific
accelerator or incubator programme has standard founder agreement
expectations.
Step 1: Research [accelerator or incubator name]'s typical
requirements or recommendations regarding founder agreements,
equity structure, or vesting for participating companies.
Step 2: Write a short summary of what to expect or prepare for,
based on what you find.
Rules: cite sources. If nothing specific is publicly documented,
say so rather than guessing at programme-specific requirements.Where it works best: Gemini can surface programme-specific expectations that directly affect what a founders agreement needs to anticipate before an accelerator application or acceptance.
Best for: Founding teams entering or preparing for a specific accelerator or incubator programme.
5. Recent Founder Dispute Case Studies
You are a startup advisor researching lessons from
publicly discussed founder disputes, to inform which clauses
deserve extra care.
Step 1: Research publicly discussed startup founder disputes in
the last few years, particularly around equity, vesting, or roles.
Find:
- What the disputes were typically about
- What lessons or recommendations followed, if publicly discussed
Step 2: Write a short summary of the most relevant lessons for
our own agreement.
Rules: cite sources. Do not name specific companies unless the
dispute was genuinely public and well-documented, focus on the
pattern and lesson, not gossip.Where it works best: Gemini surfaces real, documented patterns in how founder relationships break down, which sharpens exactly which clauses deserve the most careful attention.
Best for: Understanding which terms are worth getting exactly right because they are where real disputes have concentrated before.
6. Investor Expectations For Founder Vesting
You are a startup advisor researching what investors
typically expect regarding founder vesting before a financing
round.
Step 1: Research typical investor expectations for founder vesting
at [funding stage, e.g. seed round]. Find:
- Common vesting terms investors expect to already be in place
- What investors typically request if vesting is not yet
established
Step 2: Write a short note on how to prepare our founder vesting
before approaching investors.
Rules: cite sources. This is preparation context, not a guarantee
of what any specific investor will require.Where it works best: Gemini surfaces investor-side expectations that shape how a founders agreement should be structured well before a financing conversation actually starts.
Best for: Founding teams preparing to raise, where getting vesting right before due diligence saves a renegotiation later.
How To Get More From Each Prompt
Treat The First Reply As A Draft
Ask for a clearer vesting schedule, push back on a vague departure clause, or request a plainer explanation of the equity split. Each pass sharpens the document before it goes to legal review.
Chain Your Prompts
If a founders agreement is being drafted alongside a fundraising push, the prompts in AI prompts for Investor Pitch cover the document that usually needs to exist alongside a clean cap table.
Use the output of one prompt as the input to the next. A market-norms research prompt can inform the vesting schedule prompt, which feeds the full-draft prompt.
Save What Works
When a clause structure clears legal review cleanly and every founder genuinely understands and accepts it, keep it as a reference, with a note on why. Future co-founding teams, or a next venture, benefit from a template that already worked.
From Prompt To Branded Document
AI gives you the words. It does not give you a branded document every founder actually opens and reviews properly, or tell you when they have. That last stretch, formatting, sending, and knowing whether a co-founder has genuinely read the vesting terms before signing, is usually where the time stacks up.
This is where Proposal.biz fits in.
Paste Your Website URL – Proposal.biz pulls your brand assets into a Smart Content Library, so every document from the founders agreement onward looks professional automatically.
Generate From A Prompt – Describe the founding team and terms and it produces a fully branded document, ready to refine in the Proposal Builder.
Send, Sign And Track – Send a shareable, trackable link instead of a flat PDF, and use built-in e-signing so every founder signs inside the same workflow.
If you would rather start from a ready-made structure instead of a blank page, the founders agreement template gives you the standard sections already in place, ready to adapt from any of the prompts above.
The simplest workflow: draft your agreement using whichever AI prompt for founders agreement writing fits the scenario, have it reviewed by a startup lawyer, then drop the final copy into Proposal.biz to brand, send and track. You keep the AI tool’s drafting speed and add the document layer that gets every founder to actually sign, then use any AI prompt to write a founders agreement you have saved alongside it.
Final Word
A founders agreement earns its keep on the day nobody wants to need it, a falling out, a departure, a hard equity conversation years later. Have the honest contribution conversation before defaulting to an even split, vest everyone including the founders who resist it most, and define departure and deadlock scenarios while the relationship is still good enough to think about them fairly. The discipline lives in the sections most handshake agreements skip entirely: a specific vesting schedule, a defined deadlock process, and a departure clause that covers more than the scenario everyone hopes never happens.
Proposal.biz makes the document side of what comes after simpler. Paste your website URL and your standard terms populate a Smart Content Library you draw from on the founders agreement and every document that follows it. The Proposal Builder turns your AI draft into a branded document, a shareable link replaces the PDF, and e-signature keeps the whole chain, founders agreement through to the first investor document, inside one workflow.
Once co-founders are formalised, the same discipline applies to any outside AI prompts for Partnership Agreement the company enters into, equity, decision rights and exit terms all deserve the same upfront clarity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best AI prompt for founders agreement writing?
There is no single best prompt. For a first full draft, the ChatGPT prompt for founders agreement building works well. For vesting schedules, departure scenarios or decision rights that need to be exact, the Claude templates handle the precision that matters most. For checking current startup norms or jurisdiction-specific considerations, the Gemini template researches that context first.
Which AI tool is best for writing a founders agreement?
Each model has a different strength. ChatGPT is the most flexible for a first draft and the equity-split conversation framework. Claude is best when vesting, departure terms or deadlock resolution need to be exact rather than approximate. Gemini wins when current market norms or jurisdiction context should shape the terms.
When should co-founders write a founders agreement?
As early as possible, ideally before or shortly after incorporation, and definitely before any significant time or money has been invested unevenly. The conversation is far easier to have fairly before there is a specific disagreement driving it. Waiting until a founder wants to leave or a dispute arises is the worst possible time to negotiate these terms.
Should an AI-drafted founders agreement be reviewed by a lawyer before it is signed?
Yes, always, ideally by a startup-experienced lawyer rather than a generalist. These templates produce a strong, well-structured first draft, but equity, vesting and IP assignment carry real, lasting consequences, and a qualified lawyer’s review before any founder signs is not optional.
How do I turn the AI output into a branded, signed document?
AI gives you the words, not a branded document or a way to know whether every founder has actually reviewed it. Tools like Proposal.biz close that gap: paste your website URL to pull your brand into a Smart Content Library, generate a fully branded document from a prompt, then send a shareable, trackable link and get it e-signed inside the same workflow.
Join Our Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates and offers
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
* Will send you weekly updates for your better business management.
