Help! I need legal advise on percentages split for new start up!

[newStartup]

Hey everyone.

I am working with developers on the last phase of my internet business. I have a friend who is helping me which I consider a partner and my wife who I consider my partner as well. I have put over 10k into the company and designed and researched the whole site myself, the other two partners have helped me with support and organization, meeting right people but have not put any money in. Our developers have given us a couple options to become partners in the business. We will be incorporating C corp in Delaware next month since this seems to be the best option for raising capital. We will be looking for investors.

My question is, I know the owner needs at least 51% to keep control of the company. That leaves me with 49% to split with everyone else. Is that how it goes? How can I split this even with everyone so that they are all happy. I also need to consider percentage for investors which I hear is anywhere between 10-30%. I'm way over my head with all these percentages. I read about debt equity, shares, but it all seems like chinese to me. Can anyone help but this in elementary terms for me? And what would be a fair share or deal to give to developers? Do they get a revenue split, equity or shares, how would this work? Whats customary?

Id like to be fair with everyone here.

What I need are a couple examples to go by for basic normal splits. Like list below (im just dishing out numbers):

founder 51%
investor 20%
partner 1 10%
partner 2 10%
developers 5%

Also, what do these numbers entail? Is this when the company sells they get that percentage? What about shareholders? Instead of giving a percentage of the company could we do percentage of the profit for say first 2-3 years? Would that be fair for developers?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!!

[Business Attorney]

There is no such thing as a "normal" split. Some startups need very little cash, just enough to prime the engine. Others are very cash intensive. An investor who puts up $50,000 is probably going to look for more than someone who puts up $1 million.

Also, control and economic interests are not necessarily the same. Different classes of stock in a corporation or membership interests in an LLC can have voting control even where they represent less than 51% of the economic benefit.

You've asked some really good questions and you need to get a very good understanding of the answers before you start handing out equity. Unfortunately, there is far too much detail involved to put a good explanation in a forum post.

Good luck.