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Bad Notes on Venture Capital

Both Sides of the Table

At an accelerator … Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago.

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Bad Notes on VC

Gust

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. People seem concerned about valuation.

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The Truth About Convertible Debt at Startups and The Hidden Terms You Didn’t Understand

Both Sides of the Table

Because convertible debt deals often have both a ‘full ratchet’ and often have ‘multiple liquidation preferences’ “ Yup. What the entrepreneurs were really saying is, “I don’t want to take a lower valuation now, while I don’t have customers or a full team. That’s right.

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How Open Should a Startup CEO be with Staff?

Both Sides of the Table

The don’t understand VC liquidation preferences or multiple return expectations. It’s 2003 and VCs aren’t exactly lining up to fund startup businesses. Dilution / valuation. You take the meeting but you’re not really pursuing it. But staff can’t make the delineation in their heads.

Startup 417
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What is an employee retention or M&A carveout plan?

Startup Company Lawyer

Due to aggregate liquidation preferences that may exceed the acquisition price in an M&A deal, common stock may be rendered worthless. If you can’t figure this out yourself, you should probably build a liquidation preference spreadsheet to model how liquidation preferences work depending on M&A transaction value.