“We always start with four co-founders. What that does is minimize founder fallout which is one of the key reasons most businesses fail. With those four co-founders we always split the company equally 25% each. We then grow the company to about $10,000 MRR which covers costs.”

Assemble Four Equal Co-Founders At 25 Percent Each As Founder-Fallout Insurance

Mike's portfolio model assembles a four-person founding team (front-end dev, back-end dev, designer, and a generalist) with equal 25% splits from day one. They only start paying themselves after the app crosses $10K MRR. The equal split is explicitly a founder-fallout insurance policy — most businesses die from team dynamics, not the market.