Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR – disclaimer, I represent the Founders Institute and was involved in drafting this document). This post assumes that you have a basic understanding of Series A financing terms. Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). Dividend preference.

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 11, 2014

Rob messed around with some local video thing in 2008, which everyone but Rob thought was a pretty terrible idea. " — Charlie O'Donnell (@ceonyc) December 29, 2008. Maybe I should be writing that into my term sheets from now on: "If this crazy thing works, you have to invest in the next fund after you exit.".

Louisville 102

Louisville Term Sheet Kentucky Ukraine 102

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

There has been a lot of discussion and publishing of standard term sheets, including Y Combinator, TechStars and SeriesSeed. A good comparison of the various "standard" term sheets can be found at Start-up Company Lawyer. Marios firm, Wilson, Sonsini, even has a term sheet generator on their site.

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

K9 Ventures

APRIL 27, 2011

In April 2008, I was introduced to Ugmode, Inc. The day before we were supposed to sign the term sheet for the investment, Like.com sued Ugmode (the parent company of Modista.com) for patent infringement. Note: All information contained in this post is based on my best understanding and perception of what transpired.

Software Review 134

Software Review Technical Review IP Finance 134

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

. “I remember a series of conversations I had with Brad Feld in 2008 about his perspective on investing through various parts of economic cycles. ” Mark says plenty of other things, along with walking us through some dynamics in 2008 around the macro, startups, and the global thermonuclear financial freakout that was occurring.

Silicon Valley 70

Silicon Valley Term Sheet Early Stage New York 70

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

We used the Y Combinator open source term sheet. We signed the term sheet within 48 hours and had funded in under 2 weeks. If you accept my terms you’re done. They elected to sign my term sheet. We offered them more : $750k-1 million. We took the $500k. How did it go so quickly?

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Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

www.xconomy.com

JUNE 9, 2012

After beginning their fund-raising efforts in 2007, the firm was ready to close in the fall of 2008—when the financial crisis hit Wall Street. “Raising the firm’s initial $165 million was a three-year overnight success,” Coats says. Morgan Stanley was a lead investor,” Coats deadpans, “and we had to start fund-raising all over again.”

San Diego 40

San Diego Venture Capital Technical Review San Francisco 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

I can’t say it much simpler than this: “What if I took some of the worst, most egregious terms in a standard term sheet and made them the defacto standard in most convertible debt deals? A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

We had many term sheets (it was 1999 and we had a pulse) and we were deciding which one to take. We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. We ended up agreeing a term sheet for $16.5 6 weeks’ later he didn’t have other term sheets.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Altgate

AUGUST 16, 2010

King&# Approach to Term Sheet Negotiations → Why Don’t Universities Teach Sales? @altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Who is this Julian Assange guy anyway? A “Rich-vs.-King&#

Sales 49

Sales Term Sheet Michigan Sales Cycle 49

The Entrepreneurial Mind

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

banks and their personal guarantees and venture capitalists and their term sheets), and can just plain take the fun out of owning and running a business. Most research shows that entrepreneurs created about 75-80% of all new jobs from about mid 1980s up until the Great Recession began in 2008.

Small Business 71

Small Business Term Sheet Business Model Engineer 71

Altgate

JANUARY 21, 2010

Open source is the wrong term though; instead is probably better to say automate since LegalZoom and others are doing the same thing but commercially.

Open Source 33

Open Source Term Sheet HTML Venture Capital 33

Altgate

MARCH 17, 2009

The two most popular posts remain this one on term sheet negotiation and this one on venture debt , although this one on convertible debt is giving them a run for their money. Tips: $75 HOT All-Hands Team Meeting NEW Board Management Tips For Startup CEOs Customer Support 2.0

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Due Diligence Liquidation Preference Dividend 28

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

2008 App ecosystem on iOS = $0. Many entrepreneurs come by with great pitches and say, “I’m hoping to have term sheets in the next 30 days.” Compare the state of play in 2013 versus 15 years ago. 33% of the world is on the Internet on average of 3.1 hours / day. Shame on you.

LP 374

LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

Professor VC

APRIL 7, 2011

From my experience, negotiating debt deals with an experienced investor will result in a number of the same terms and wont save much (if anything) on legal fees. ► 2008. (14). Particularly, now that standard Series Seed docs are commonly used. So when does convertible debt make sense? ► May. (1). ► March. (1).

San Jose 36

San Jose Technical Review Angel Investor Valuation 36

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

On a panel that I sat on with Ron in LA in 2008 he stated that there were no circumstances in which the founder should take money off of the table. Many term sheets ensued. I had that against the backdrop of several term sheets. I already had this argument with Ron Conway and we disagree on the topic.

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Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

VC Adventure

AUGUST 24, 2011

when the Dow drops 10% it’s not like term sheets headed out the door that week do the same). This was famously done by Seqouia in 2008 with their widely publicized CEO meeting (and accompanying PowerPoint ), but was and is done much more quietly by many firms.

Marketing 85

Marketing Silicon Valley Valuation Portfolio 85

Altgate

JANUARY 4, 2009

His company is doing well and recently received a couple of term sheets for his first institutional round.

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Term Sheet Private Equity Early Stage 28

VC Adventure

AUGUST 24, 2011

when the Dow drops 10% it’s not like term sheets headed out the door that week do the same). This was famously done by Seqouia in 2008 with their widely publicized CEO meeting (and accompanying PowerPoint ), but was and is done much more quietly by many firms.

Marketing 48

Marketing Silicon Valley Valuation Portfolio 48

Professor VC

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

Those that managed companies in 2008 or thirteen years ago in 2001 know exactly how fear feels. In 2008, I made an investment offer of $250K for approximately 38% of the company ($400,000 pre-money valuation). The current valuation of $2B is 3,000X the proposed post-money valuation of that seed term sheet.

Las Vegas 28

Las Vegas IPO Pre-Money Valuation Valuation 28

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

But of course, the model had us requiring only $10M equity to breakeven and to achieve $185M in revenues in 2008 (the magic Year 5 in all business plans). At this time, we had secured a term sheet from a co-investor from one of my other angel investments (Thanks, Graeme!) ► 2008. (14). ► May. (1).

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

Seeing Both Sides

JUNE 26, 2009

In fact, in each of the four years betwen 2005-2008, an eerily precise 25% of deals were closed in Q3 (25.0%, 24.6%, 25.1% But this argument seems specious given that all the hard work on both sides happens 30-60 days before a deal is closed, when the VC does their due diligence and term sheets are negotiated.

Due Diligence 32

Due Diligence Term Sheet Entrepreneur Aggregator 32

Professor VC

JANUARY 20, 2009

The funding search began the day after Labor Day and continued throughout the fall as the environment continued to worsen, and resulted in a term sheet the day before Thanksgiving. Our lead investor, Triangle Peak Partners closed on a $170 million first fund in late 2008. ► 2008. (14). ► May. (1).

Venture Capital 28

Venture Capital Silicon Valley San Jose Bootstrapping 28

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

August 2008 Raising money is the second hardest part of starting a startup.The hardest part is making something people want: most startupsthat die, die because they didnt do that. How likely are they to offer you a term sheet?What Want to start a startup? Get funded by Y Combinator. What do they have to be convinced of first?

Bootstrapping 77

Bootstrapping Term Sheet Founder Startup 77

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

If they see you when you’ve already got your first term sheet and they’ve got 3 weeks to decide then by definition they have no relationship with you. Our 2008 fund looks spectacular. ” All VCs want early access. So winning means they’re paying the highest price. Sure, some people work this way.

Developer 366

Developer Silicon Valley PR Las Vegas 366

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

When I was an entrepreneur there was no public information about how term sheets worked or how investors thought. That was written in September 2008. In September 2008 this was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the rippling effect was massive. All of these are false. Remember the RIP Good Times by Sequoia ?

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Later that evening you review the term sheet from Blue Shirt. Reading on, the term sheet states, “The $8 million pre-money valuation includes an option pool equal to 20% of the post-financing fully diluted capitalization.&# Reply # Nivi · Apr 11, 2008 Option 2 is better. We have two choices: 1.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

www.currentlyobsessed.com

MAY 28, 2010

I have to admit, the light bulb didn’t go off for me until I was negotiating term sheets. Read Terms that Hurt (Venture Hacks). Read up on the “unwritten terms&# in term sheets having to do with exit multiples here For bootstrappers, the math is even easier: 100% of the upside goes to you and your awesome team.

Valuation 42

Valuation Channel Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 42

Altgate

APRIL 26, 2009

← Law Firm Wilson Sonsini Now Preparing Term Sheets For Free More on the “VC Math Problem&# → [link] Family Enterprise Compensation Strategies [.] The report is then able to give ranges of compensation based on these attributes. Bookmark the permalink. 2009 Startup Executive Compensation Survey Opens [.]

Term Sheet 60

Term Sheet Venture Capital Startup 60

VC Cafe

MAY 18, 2022

a 70% decrease in price might seem like a ‘bargain’ to buy, but in 2008, it took stocks 10 years to recover their original price following a recession, and some lost up to 90% of their original value, so it’s hard to predict how far we are from the bottom. Round sizes will likely get smaller in the short term.

Term Sheet 190

Term Sheet Startup Valuation Ukraine 190

Altgate

APRIL 22, 2009

 Today,  Wilson Sonsini  announced the launch of a " term sheet generator." "  It's basically a web tool that creates draft preferred financing term sheets for startups. "  It's basically a web tool that creates draft preferred financing term sheets for startups.

Term Sheet 52

Term Sheet Intellectual Property Venture Capital Hawaii 52

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

SM: In September 2008, when the first Entrepreneur Journeys book was released, D.D. When we were looking to talk to investors, Sramana introduced us to multiple investors and acted as an advisor helping us to navigate complex term sheet clauses like tranche financing and liquidation preferences.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 6, 2011

From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. The company has generated excellent investor interest and multiple term sheets. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. She writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley India San Francisco Entrepreneur 118