Joining as a founding team member: what to ask before you commit

As of 2026-10-10, this is general information, not legal or financial advice. Equity, tax and immigration rules differ by country and change over time. Ask a lawyer and a tax adviser licensed where you will live and work, and an immigration lawyer if you will cross a border.

Joining a very early company is a different decision from taking a job. The title may sound senior, the pay may be partly in promises, and the future of the company is unknown to everyone, including the person making the offer. People who arrive from a long career, or from another country, often have more to weigh than younger first-time job seekers: a salary to replace, dependents, a visa, a pension or a professional reputation.

This article is a list of questions to ask before you commit. It does not say whether to join any company, and it does not say what a fair offer looks like, because the facts that decide that are not on this page. The aim is that you leave each conversation knowing more than when you entered it, and that the answers are written down.

What “founding” can mean

The word describes several different arrangements. Ask the person making the offer which of these they mean, and ask for the answer in writing.

A title is a courtesy. The documents are the arrangement.

Questions about the role

• What exactly will I do in the first six months, and how will the founders and I know whether it is working?
• Who decides what, and who has the last word when the founders disagree?
• Who else is on the team now, and in what capacity?
• What other commitments do the other founders have, such as another job, studies or another venture?
• What am I expected to put in: time, money, a laptop, a loan to the company?
• What happens to my role if the company changes direction?

Questions about equity

Equity wording is where misunderstanding is most expensive, so it helps to define the terms before you ask about them.

Vesting is the common term for earning rights in shares or similar property over time through continued service, rather than all at once. United States tax law describes a related idea: the rights of a person in property are subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture if those rights are conditioned upon the future performance of substantial services by any individual. This is a description of a general concept, not of any offer.

With that in mind, questions to bring to a lawyer:

1. What exactly am I being offered? Shares, options to buy shares or a promise to issue something later? Each has different rights and different consequences.
2. What percentage of the company does it represent today, and how is that percentage calculated? Ask to see the current ownership table, and ask who else is on it.
3. How does it vest, and from what date? Ask whether the clock starts on the first day of work or on some earlier day, and what happens if you leave at different points.
4. What happens if I am dismissed, if I resign or if the company is sold? Ask for each case, in writing.
5. Can the company buy back what I have earned? And at what price?
6. How will my share change when new people or investors join? Ask counsel to model it with the real numbers.
7. Who must approve the issue of my shares, and has that happened? Ask to see the approval, not only the offer.
8. What documents will I sign, and who drafts them?

Questions about tax

Tax treatment is a place where the details decide the outcome and where deadlines bite. In United States law, when property is transferred in connection with the performance of services, section 83 provides that an amount shall be included in the gross income of the person who performed such services in the first taxable year, and the details of which year that is belong with a tax adviser. The same statute provides for an election, and it says the election shall be made not later than 30 days after the date of such transfer and may not be revoked except with the consent of the Secretary.

That is a deadline measured in days, set by statute. Whether it applies to you, whether to make the choice and how, are questions for a tax adviser before you sign anything that transfers shares, not after. If you live outside the United States, ask what your own country’s rules say about shares or options received for work.

Related questions:

• Will I owe tax when I receive shares, when they vest or when I sell them?
• If I am paid partly in shares, how does the company value them, and who checks that value?
• Does anything in the arrangement trigger a filing in my country?

Questions about pay and employment status

Cash matters as much as equity, especially if you are leaving a salaried job.

• What is the cash compensation now, and what will it be after the company raises money? Ask what the company will do if it does not.
• Are any wages deferred? If so, ask for the terms in writing, including what happens if the company ends before it pays.
• Will I be an employee or a contractor? The IRS says that in deciding whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, all information that provides evidence of the degree of control and independence must be considered, and that there is no “magic” or set number of factors. The label in the contract does not settle the matter. Ask counsel how the relationship is classified where you will work.
• Which benefits come with the role, such as health cover, leave and retirement contributions, and which do not?
• What is the company’s runway, in the founders’ own words, and what would they cut first?

The article on questions to ask your counsel before you sign has a general list for agreements of this kind.

Questions about work authorization and location

If the company is in a different country from the one where you hold the right to work, that fact can decide whether and how you can take the role at all.

• Where will I perform the work, and for which entity? Working from one country for a company formed in another raises employment, tax and sometimes immigration questions.
• Do I have the right to do this work? The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notes that a common way to work temporarily in the United States as a nonimmigrant is for a prospective employer to file a petition. Whether that route, or any other, is open to you, and whether an early company can use it, is a matter for an immigration lawyer, and a question to have answered before work begins.
• Which country’s law governs my agreement, and where would a dispute be heard?
• Which payroll or payment route will the company use, and who handles social contributions and withholding?
• How will time zones, holidays and working hours be handled? The article on an operating rhythm for a remote team shows what a written rhythm covers.

Questions about the work you create

• Will I sign an agreement assigning my work to the company, and from what date?
• Does it cover work I did before I joined, and which of that, if any, do I keep?
• In United States copyright law, the employer is considered the author of a work made for hire. Does the same rule apply where I will work?
• Is there a list of my existing projects that I may keep working on?
• Do I have an existing contract with a current employer that touches this work? See intellectual property and access diligence for how records of this kind are reviewed.

Questions about leaving

Every arrangement should say how it ends, and it is easier to agree on that on the first day than on the last.

• What happens to my equity, my access and my pay if I leave?
• Are there restrictions on what I may do afterwards, and for how long?
• How would a disagreement be resolved, and who pays for it?
• If the company shuts down, what do I owe and what am I owed?

What this article cannot tell you

It cannot say whether a company is a good one to join, whether an offer is fair, or how any deal will turn out. The four sources cited are one section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, one section of the U.S. Copyright Act, an immigration agency page and an IRS page on worker classification; they describe United States rules and no others. The article does not cover the equity, employment, tax or immigration law of any other country, the terms of any particular share plan, the right to work in any specific case, or the effect of an election on your tax bill. It gives no percentages, no salary ranges and no vesting lengths, because none of the cited sources sets them and because they depend on the parties. Your situation, including your savings, family, citizenship and the company’s own state, will change every answer.

In the data

These figures describe U.S. businesses in general, not WE’s results. Each one names its source.

Show the data as a table

Median years with the current employer, by age, January 2026

Age group	Median tenure
Ages 20 to 24	1.5 years
Ages 25 to 34	3.0 years
Ages 35 to 44	4.7 years
Ages 45 to 54	7.0 years
Ages 55 to 64	9.6 years
Ages 65 and over	9.9 years
All workers 16 and over	4.1 years

Wage and salary workers only; tenure is time with the current employer, not in the current job.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Tenure, Table 1 , January 2026

Retrieved 2026-10-16. Values are the published medians for both sexes, copied as printed.

Sources

1. 26 U.S. Code section 83, Property transferred in connection with performance of services, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
2. Working in the United States, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services . Accessed October 10, 2026.
3. Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?, Internal Revenue Service . Accessed October 10, 2026.
4. 17 U.S. Code section 201, Ownership of copyright, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.

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