Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 15, 2016

And recaps hurt founders so often people just avoid doing them. Adjust your valuation down proactively so that outsiders can still fund you at what the market considers a normal valuation for your stage & progress. How Complicated is Your Cap Table? Cap Table issues are seldom understood by entrepreneurs.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Valuation Software Review 150

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

One of the most important decisions for a founder of an early stage company is deciding who should be on the cap table. Lately, we have seen more founders grappling with the question of whether to include a Series A investor in their seed round.

Cap Table 351

Cap Table Due Diligence Early Stage Portfolio 351

OnlyOnce

JULY 30, 2020

If you’re a founder entrepreneur who has led your company for several years, the odds are you have a significant amount of emotional investment in your company, too. Sometimes you can have a major internal problem related to the cap table–a founder with a lot of stock needs liquidity or you need to push this person out of the company.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Institutional Investors Startup Early Stage 48

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

At the seed stage and as companies scale, helping the founders I work with identify and reach their goals, personally and professionally, gives me energy and purpose. I made over a dozen angel investments and a few investments in VC funds as an LP, expanding my focus to new geographies, sectors, and stages.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 21, 2022

Welcome to ‘500 Founders’ where we ask startup founders and innovators from around New Zealand, What is one piece of advice you would give to people working on their first startup and why? Tina Chou – Founder. ” Dean Brown – Founder. Thomas Clyma – Cofounder. TheTestMart. Triage-Plus.

Founder 88

Founder Cap Table Cofounder New Zealand 88

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 31, 2021

and my answer is that generally while a particular zip code or two might feel ‘overfunded’ at a moment in time, that early stage entrepreneurism is still UNDERFUNDED globally by at least an order of magnitude. If you can be more valuable than that, I’d love to bring you on to the cap table of the next seed round we lead.

Cap Table 122

Cap Table Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 122

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

When they’re at seed stage, we’re deferring to the founders’ decisions but also trying to help them understand the challenges associated with a hard pivot if their cap table isn’t supportive of the direction. We’re prepared to take the risk and redeploy. .

Founder 96

Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 96

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

Semil asserts, Seed-stage valuations have generally been left-unchanged, and I could argue even they’ve gone up since the beginning of 2022. Early-stage is perhaps a more attractive stage to deploy smaller dollars these days – a friend remarked everyone wants to gamble, but no one wants to sit at the whale tables just yet.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Valuation Salary Seed Stage 93

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 28, 2021

My co-founders, I’ve worked with for an average of 15 years – we know and trust each other tremendously. And for the most part, the same is true about our cap table. No institutional debt like a messy cap table, legacy people issues, leases for offices we don’t want or need any more.

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Early Stage Cofounder Leadership 62

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. Your Cap Table is something that deserves constant care and attention.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

In venture capital in particular, early-stage companies are often operating in frontier industries, where the rules are unpredictable and conventional analytic frameworks may be misleading. Signal is a fundraising tool for founders run by NFX Guild, which identifies the most relevant VCs for you. . Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

Many founders will seek out other other founders to get advice on their early rounds. One of those sources will tell the founder just starting out “Hey, I think you should just raise a huge round now, go for it!” Ultimately, the founder has to decide.

Cap Table 110

Cap Table Marketing Early Stage Founder 110

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2022

Besides, there were a limited number of places where I could do my job in venture capital anyway—and while I might be a go to for a pitch from super early stage pre-seed and seed founders looking for quick answers and decisive term sheets in New York City, the reality is that I would be pretty far down the list in the Valley.

Ukraine 128

Ukraine Russia Cap Table New York City 128

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Decathlon Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). Typical VC investments begin at $2 million and quickly rise to $5 million and above, depending upon the size of the fund and stage of investment.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

In December, AngelList , a service that matches early-stage startups with investors, debuted the ability to allow accredited investors to actually invest in startups on the platform with as little as $1,000. That way, startups only have one entity in the cap table, which simplifies documentation and structure.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Haystack

OCTOBER 2, 2019

Those of us in the early-stage tech ecosystem by now well know that saying “there are a LOT of seed and new startups” is a gross understatement. What I will say is many institutional investors require them, and fair or not, most investors view the pitch deck as a proxy for how the founders will present to customers.

Deal Flow 106

Deal Flow Cap Table Early Stage Institutional Investors 106

Hunter Walker

JULY 19, 2017

The format differs but let’s generally describe Scouts as, individuals using money fully or partially fronted by another VC fund to make investments in early stage companies with hopes of giving the sponsoring fund an advantage in leading a larger round for the startup later on. Are you a Scout? Is that possible?

Founder 69

Founder Silicon Valley Cap Table LP 69

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

As a globally focused LP in early stage VC funds, we at Blue Future Partners have observed a growing trend of firms investing substantially in software tools, whether developing proprietary solutions or adopting off the shelf tools. But what tools are they using themselves to automate their own processes?

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

This is all incorporated into a document called a Cap Table. . A cap table will help you in the strategic management of business decisions. Wondering what a cap table is, its importance, and how you can maintain it to expand your business? What is a cap table? Let’s dive in.

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 7, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). Equally silly were people insisting that founders use convertible notes but we funded a few of those, too.

Cap Table 399

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Finance 399

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also. worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. The middle” consists of venture-backed companies that are neither early stage nor mature. What about the middle?

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

I had gone to high school with the founders in the Seattle area, and we had recently reconnected. My boss, Jen Grant , was an incredible manager, and Aaron Levie, the co-founder and CEO, was a fantastic partner on all things communications. For any individual founder, all comms decisions should start with the desired business impact.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

Back in 2017, Fred Wilson noted the strategic importance of the seed stage , writing: Seed is really hard. You lose influence as larger investors come into the cap table and start throwing their weight around. You lose way more than you win. You wait the longest for liquidity. It is where most people start out.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

David Teten

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

Some firms provide tools to do this online, e.g., Capital ’s Cost of Equity estimator ; Lighter Capital’s Cost of Capital Calculator ; 645 Ventures’ cap table simulator. However, SBA loans typically require a personal guarantee (PG) from the founder(s), who are scrutinized for income and credit history at the time of application.

SBIC 60

SBIC SBA Cap Table Database 60

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The same can be said of startups and their founders, in the sense that so many things can go wrong in the building of a company to an exit, that success almost seems to be a statistical anomaly [more on how bees fly ]. See, it happens to investors too, not just founders.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Venture Capital Cofounder Portfolio 67

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

There weren’t a lot of seed funds in 2007 so this was often done by angels, funding consortia or sometimes early-stage funds that existed then (First Round Capital, True Ventures, SoftTech VC, etc.). Equally silly were advisors & entrepreneurs insisting that founders use convertible notes but we funded a few of those, too.

Cap Table 136

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Non-Compete 136

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 16, 2017

Solid post for young founders=> Cap Tables, Share Structures, Valuations, Oh My! A Case Study of Early-Stage Funding [link]. Jessica Livingston (discussing key traits of successful founders) [link]. Below are my four most popular tweets for the past month. Cheers, Scott. Top 4 Tweets.

Cap Table 45

Cap Table Early Stage Valuation Video 45

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

The founders had been dropping hints that they wanted me to join them. This book was written to help founders negotiate financing with investors, but it really helped me understand Keen’s financial situation, and I highly recommend it to anyone joining a startup. Startup Equity for Early Employees. So I knew a little bit.

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. One way to measure that is to imagine the theoretical $500-$1mm angel round that a founder is looking to raise. Less than that and you need something else to bring to the table. So what’s the point?

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

It’s essentially a private IPO where early investors, founders and employees get some liquidity and Softbank gets minority ownership, maybe a Board seat. Yippee, go Masayoshi Son!!! Cool, cool.

Cap Table 95

Cap Table IRR IPO Early Stage 95

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

Chris Dixon made the point that he thinks investors should look for the founders to have the domain knowledge rather than them having domain knowledge themselves. But while I prefer a certain naive optimism in founders I can’t see the logic that this extends to angel investors. And the best early-stage investors know this.

Angel Investor 284

Angel Investor Early Stage Cap Table Deal Flow 284

Rob Go

AUGUST 29, 2016

When I first started out as a VC nearly 9 years ago, most early stage company valuations were expressed as pre-money valuations. Founders also had to do a little math on the new option pool to really understand what their ownership would be post investment, since it was typically taken out of the company pre-money.

Post-Money Valuation 52

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Term Sheet 52

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 26, 2011

The investments by the founders created two transactions. This is one of the reasons that Dick and Jane chose to use QuickBooks, even at this very early stage, as it guarantees that their books will conform to double entry accounting. Next week we will introduce the Cap Table, and show how it changes when adding a co-founder.

Balance Sheet 128

Balance Sheet Cofounder Cap Table Delaware 128

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. But should they? Less or no dilution.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

When we were last with Dick and Jane on Finance Fridays, our fearless entrepreneurs were figuring out how to split up their founders equity and account for an investment from Jane. Feeling overwhelmed, Dick emailed his friend Josh, the CEO of an early-stage startup in Boulder, to see how they figured out all of this stuff.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78