Recently I onboarded a partner for their marketing skills onto our startup which is currently valued at $2.5 mil post-money after 2 rounds of seed investment. There was no negotiation from their side when I offered them 1% in equity for their services and network.

The next day, they come back to me with a story where they've discussed the offer with their 'investor friend' who said it wasn't a good deal and then goes on to pitch the plan where they seek to set up a JV in another country (USA) where we would own 50% and they would own 50%. They said the JV would be conditional on the investor friend helping us raise around $1mil and that would be split up.

This seems very fishy. What would be the reason to go for such a partnership from their side? Has anyone come across such a deal before?

Also, would a JV in another country restrict us to only do business in that country through the JV?