Cash, equity, or a mix is a question about how we get paid. This is the question underneath it: when someone offers equity instead of cash, how do we decide?
Cash is a transaction. Equity is a bet that ties our upside to yours for years. That deserves a straight answer about what we weigh, rather than a vague "we look for great founders".
Is the problem real, and does it hurt
The first thing we try to establish is whether anyone is actually in pain.
The strongest signal is not market size. It is that someone is already spending money, hours, or goodwill working around the problem today — a spreadsheet held together by hand, a person doing something a system should do, a process everyone complains about and nobody fixes. Workarounds are proof of demand in a way that projections are not.
If the honest answer is that people would probably like this, that is a project. It is not something to bet years on.
Is this founder the one to solve it
We are betting on a person more than an idea, because the idea will change and the person will not.
What we look for is unfair advantage of some kind: years inside the industry, a network that opens doors we cannot, an insight that only comes from having lived the problem. Not credentials — proximity.
And then something less measurable: whether you make decisions. Working closely with someone for a year makes this impossible to hide. Founders who circle a choice for weeks are exhausting to build with, however smart the analysis.
Can AI change the economics here
This is our specific test, and it is where we say no most often.
Some businesses get faster with AI. A smaller number get structurally cheaper — the work that used to need five people needs one, or a service that only made sense at enterprise prices suddenly works for small companies. That second kind is where our contribution actually compounds, and where equity makes sense rather than an invoice.
If AI would be a nice improvement around the edges of your business, take the cash option and keep your company. We will tell you that.
Does our work keep paying off
Equity only makes sense if what we build keeps working after we step back.
An agent that runs every day, a system a small team can operate, a brand that keeps bringing people in — those keep earning long after the engagement ends. A one-off launch does not. When the work is a project with an end date, cash is the honest structure, and pretending otherwise does neither side a favour.
Why we say no
Most of our no's are not about quality. They are about fit: the problem is real but AI is not the lever, or the timing is wrong, or the founder wants a vendor and we would be a bad one.
There is one no that is about something else. If we do not believe what a business does is good for the people it serves, no amount of upside makes that worth years of our time.
What this means if you are asking
Come with the problem, not the pitch. Tell us what people do today instead of using your product, why you specifically are the person to fix it, and where you think the work compounds. That conversation gets to an answer faster than any deck.
Agenloo partners with solo founders for cash, equity, or a mix — whichever fits your stage. Tell us about your business.