When you create your company, signing a solid Shareholder Agreement (also known as SHA) with your co-founders is fundamental!
The pact is a confidential contract between the founders (and the Finanzamt). So you can all kinds of important clauses (like vesting, tag and drag along, etc.) in the SHA instead of in the (public) articles of association. But just to be on the safe side, you should get the SHA notarized when you found the company.
The pact lets you enter into a fiduciary relationship with each other, but it also lets you agree on exit terms, whether that’s because the company is sold to a third party or there is a forced transfer of shares for a shareholder who doesn’t respect the agreement 😱 It also can lay out terms regarding exclusivity, confidentiality, non-competition, that sort of thing.
When you become associates, you want to think clearly about everything - the good, the bad, the ugly...but without falling down the paranoia hole either!
🎥More info about how this document works⤵️