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GetSweaty

FAQ

The things people ask before they sign.

Straight answers on equity ranges, milestone vesting, jurisdictions and what happens when an engagement ends early.

The basics

A small, defined slice of a company's equity traded for a specific piece of senior work. The percentage is set per engagement and agreed before anything starts, so a founder can bring in several experts without losing control of the cap table.

Three groups. Pre-seed founders who need judgment they cannot afford in cash. Experts, usually employed full time, who want startup upside without leaving their job. And investors who would rather read evidence than a deck.

Yes, through real-time messaging, with the company or opportunity the conversation started from attached to the thread. Your data room is separate: an investor can request access from your Investment Ask, and you decide what they see folder by folder. Nothing opens because they asked.

Freelance marketplaces move cash for hours. GetSweaty moves equity for outcomes, and the paperwork that makes the trade enforceable is the product.

Yes. Founders post course-required vocational placements and unpaid graduate placements as their own engagement types. A placement carries no equity and no equity paperwork. What it does carry is real work experience inside a company still being built.

Equity and vesting

The instrument is an option agreement, signed before work starts and covering the full equity on offer. Vesting is milestone-based, not time-based: the opportunity is broken into milestones, each carrying its own slice of the options and its own due date, and that slice vests when the deliverable is completed and verified. Vested options are a right to acquire shares, not shares themselves — they become shares only if they are exercised, which is a separate step under the terms of the agreement.

Price the outcome, not the hours: a role that unblocks a quarter is worth more than a role that fills a calendar. Write each milestone as something the expert delivers and you can verify by looking at it, not as a company result that depends on things outside their control. Vague milestones and unwinnable milestones both end the same way. Whatever you land on is stated on the listing and written into the agreement before work begins.

Only the milestones that were completed and verified vest. The options attached to the remaining milestones lapse, and that equity stays with the company. Both sides hold the same signed record, so there is nothing to argue about later.

Experts

That is the design. Engagements are scoped in weekly hours and run side of desk. Check your employment agreement and any conflict-of-interest or outside-work policy before you accept, and be honest about the hours you actually have.

Requests are ranked by fit to your stated expertise, and the founder's proof of legitimacy loads before their pitch. Set an equity floor and let the fit do the sorting. Saying no is what keeps the yes worth something.

Founders

Nothing. Custom groups and per-person grants, folder and file level permissions, download control and expiry on each grant, watermarking, the protected viewer, the audit log and the document analytics are all included for founders, along with document signing. There is no seat count and no tier above it.

Yes. Alongside specialist experts, you can post for an advisor, a mentor, a coach, an influencer or a board director, with equity or without it. Where there is equity, it is papered like any other trade: an option agreement and a milestone schedule, signed before work starts. A director listing is a search for a candidate; the appointment itself is a company decision made outside GetSweaty.

A company profile with your problem statement, why now, business model and current metrics, plus the milestone the work is meant to unlock. Proof of demand is the only pitch that survives diligence.

Yes. Post a co-founder listing and we help you find the person. The equity split, any vesting and the agreement between you are negotiated separately. We do not paper the partnership.

Still deciding?

Create an account and look around. No equity moves until an agreement is signed, so there is no commitment in having a profile.

Talk to us

Free for founders and experts. No equity moves until the agreement is signed.

Access by application

We are selecting the first cohort.

Founders and experts are admitted in vetted intakes rather than all at once. Tell us who you are and where you build, and we will write as soon as you are accepted.

Which are you

Australia and the United Kingdom open first, from October 2026. Your name and email are stored so we can review your application and tell you when you are accepted, and for the updates above if you asked for them. No third parties. See the privacy policy.