Building Your Founding Team — Lesson 9: Write the Exit While You Still Like Each Other

This is The Build Log, the weekly startup-fundamentals series from The AI-Native Founder. New here? Start with Lesson 1.

It is Tuesday night and the trial went well. You hit the day-10 deliverable, the day-6 cut hurt but you made it together, and on the last call your new partner said, “So, fifty-fifty?” You said “sure”, because arguing about percentages felt like telling them you did not trust them. Nothing is written down except that one word in a chat thread.

This lesson turns that word into paper while the two of you still like each other. You leave with agreement.md, a one-page co-founder term sheet built from last week’s trial.md, decision log and sealed answers, a scenario prompt that shows exactly what each of you owns if one of you leaves at month 9 or month 30, and the one tax deadline that cannot be fixed later.