It starts with silence.

No reply to Slack. Missed calls. Then you check—and they’ve stopped logging into the codebase.

Your co-founder is MIA.

<strong>Step 1: Don’t Panic (Yet)</strong>

People go offline for legitimate reasons. Maybe it’s a personal emergency, burnout, or miscommunication.

Reach out:

Send a direct message
Call
Email
Text their personal number if you have it
Give them 48 hours to respond.

<strong>Step 2: Check the Founder Agreement</strong>

If you have a founder agreement, review the terms around:

Inactivity or abandonment
Vesting schedules
Buy-back clauses for unvested equity

If you used CoFounda, this is in your Blueprint.

<strong>Step 3: Document Everything</strong>

Keep a written log:

Dates you tried to contact them
What they were responsible for
Any commitments they failed to meet

This becomes critical if legal or equity issues arise.

<strong>Step 4: Address the Equity Question</strong>

If your co-founder stops working, their equity should stop vesting.

If you have a vesting schedule with a cliff, unvested shares should revert to the company.

If you don’t have vesting in place, you might have to negotiate a buyout or buyback—or they walk away with full equity even though they contributed nothing.

<strong>Step 5: Keep Moving Forward</strong>

This is painful, but don’t let it kill your momentum.

Reallocate responsibilities
Bring in a replacement co-founder if needed
Be honest with investors, advisors, and your team

<strong>Prevention Is Everything</strong>

The best way to handle a co-founder ghosting you is to have clear protections in place before it happens.

Vesting schedules, cliffs, and exit clauses give you legal leverage—without them, you’re negotiating from weakness.