How co-founders should evidence individual contribution, operating responsibility, endorsement and separate Innovator Founder settlement achievements.
01
Define each founder's contribution to the idea.
Appendix Innovator Founder requires each applicant to have generated, or made a significant contribution to, the ideas in the business plan and to be the sole founder or an instrumental member of the founding team.
A cap table identifies ownership; it does not explain who created the proposition, developed the technology, validated the market or designed the commercial model. Attribute substantive contributions with a clear factual record.
02
Separate daily operating responsibility from passive ownership.
Each applicant needs a genuine day-to-day role in carrying out the endorsed plan. Job titles should correspond with actual operational decisions, expertise and time commitments rather than distribute labels after the commercial strategy has already been settled.
Where responsibilities overlap, identify which decisions each founder owns and how the team operates. Evidence may include product records, research, customer interactions, governance material and development milestones.
03
Design the settlement position for each founder independently.
The business may be common to the founding team, but settlement assessment applies to each person. The Rules prevent co-founders from sharing the same means of satisfying the relevant settlement achievement criteria.
If 2 founders rely on a job-creation criterion, for example, the same jobs cannot simply be counted for both applications. The initial plan should test whether the operating model can support the intended long-term position for every applicant.