Free playbook · Pre-seed & seed founders

The Founder's Give-Back Playbook

Building a for-good arm into your startup — the right way, at the right time.

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The cheapest, highest-leverage moment to commit to social impact is when your equity is worth almost nothing. A pledge you make today, before your cap table fills with investors and before a liquidity event, costs little now and can be worth millions to your cause later.

Atlassian, Coinbase, and UiPath all set shares aside early. Those quiet decisions grew into some of the largest philanthropic endowments in tech.

The real reason to do this early is that you can still just do it. Before a priced round, the decision is yours to make. After one, it needs board sign-off, and it starts competing for attention with everything else that feels more urgent. I've watched plenty of good intentions go quiet right there.

This playbook shows you how to build a credible for-good arm from the pre-seed or seed stage: what to pledge, how to structure it, and the five decisions that actually matter.

Inside the playbook

The four ways to give

You don't have to choose just one, and you don't have to give exactly 1%. Most early-stage companies start with one or two and grow into the others.

EQUITY

A slice of your shares

Set aside roughly 1% of company or founder shares to fund impact at a future liquidity event. The signature early-stage move, and the anchor for almost every startup.

PRODUCT

Free or discounted access

Donate licenses, subscriptions, or access to nonprofits at little marginal cost. Best for SaaS and product companies.

PROFIT

A share of what you earn

Direct a percentage of profit or revenue to grantmaking or an employee match. Best once there's real revenue behind it.

TIME

Paid volunteer hours

Give your team paid time to volunteer, hands-on or skills-based. Best for teams building culture from day one.

The clause founders forget

The top-off provision

Every round you raise dilutes your pledge along with everything else. If the original board resolution doesn't include a top-off provision replenishing the pledge back to its target percentage as you raise, the 1% you were proud of quietly shrinks to a fraction of itself by Series B.

One sentence of legal language. Skipping it is the most common and most expensive omission in this whole process.

The core of it

The five decisions that matter

Answer these five and the pledge is substantially designed.

How much?

1% is the default and the norm, but the number can be anything meaningful and sustainable.

Company equity, founder equity, or both?

Company equity is common while the cap table is founder-controlled; founder equity avoids board approval entirely.

Warrant or reservation?

Binding-and-specific versus flexible-and-open. The playbook walks through both.

What vehicle receives it?

A donor-advised fund is the low-friction default; a private foundation only at real scale.

What's the cause thesis?

Even a one-line focus makes the pledge tangible. It can evolve as you learn.

Size the pledge, pick the structure.

Everything else follows from that. It's a good hour of work for something your company will carry for its whole life.

Download the playbook (PDF)

Free, no email required.

Working together

How I help founders do this

Setting up the structure is the easy part. Turning good intentions into measurable, lasting impact is the work.

DIAGNOSE

Review your stage, cap table, cash, and cause interests to recommend the right pledge mix and structure.

STRUCTURE

Turn your decisions into a clear brief your counsel can draft from, top-off provision included, and manage the donor-advised fund setup end to end.

ACTIVATE

Define a focused impact thesis, choose partners, and build the program your team and customers can actually see.

Talk it through with me

This playbook is general guidance, not legal or tax advice. Founders should confirm structure and timing with qualified counsel and a tax advisor before executing a pledge. Framework based on the Pledge 1% model.

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