It depends on the company and what you really have. How much do you need? There is a lot to consider but generally, in this market, the money guy usually ends up with 51% of the deal.
Depending on your deal and amount of money you need I can give you the structure I use that allows me to raise money at a much better valuation than what you probably can. I'll give you the two cent version. If you have a good idea or I have a good idea, I'm very good at takign companies public on the cheap. Let's say I raise $250K from 40 of my buddies. Let's say the company takes off. Once we are public we can choose to stay public and raise more capital or spin the assets out and run the company privately. The difference is we have a public company that is VERY valuable. Right now DTC Eligible shells are selling for $400K.
Worst case is the idea sucked. We lose all the money. Guess what? I can pay all my investors back 6% on their money or more and I make money for being such a miserable failure. Why don't more people do it? There are a lot of reasons. It took me 8 years to get this process down to a science. My company offers almost all the services public companies need so I can do it all for nothing. I'm about as conservative as they come. I've turned down great deals just because one of the people had a history of a bad deal or two. If anything looks, smells, whatever, you just walk. So many bastards out there.
Good luck.
