David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From traditional equity VC, Flexible VC borrows the option to pursue and reap the rewards of an outsized exit. Flexible VC 101: Equity Meets Revenue Share. Once the return cap is reached, the investor is typically left with a residual stake–a fraction of the pre-revenue share ownership. Equity Ownership. return cap.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Board Effect

MAY 13, 2019

Let’s not waste time listing everything startups could be doing to more effectively manage their cap tables. When it comes to cap table management in startup companies, it’s unrealistic to expect perfection. What does your cap table need to address at each stage of growth? Defining Cap Tables.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Management Liquidity Event Dilution 40

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund and mutual fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. High-frequency trading, algorithmic by its nature, is estimated to account for at least 50% of US equity markets trading volume. . But we’re doing it slowly.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Most of my research is also relevant to private equity. Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . See How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood. . 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Most of my research is also relevant to private equity. Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . See How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood. . 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 13, 2013

When raising money from investors (angels or VC), it is critical to have a presentable and clean cap table. On a fully diluted pre-money basis, that would mean the option pool represents 14.5% (356,758/2,456,758) of the cap table. times more equity than Founder X. Well, that is really up to Founder X and Founder Y.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Liquidation Preference 67

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

On the other hand, they could be the opposite—much more focused on near-term cash distributions than long-term equity appreciation. This is a business and the goal should be to get the best people at every position, regardless of their position on the cap table. I get that you want to play baseball but do that on your own time.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. 645 Ventures released a cap table simulator to help level the playing field.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Choe opted to forgo a cash payment “in the thousands” for the equity equivalent at the time. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

VC Adventure

OCTOBER 8, 2012

This is typically reflected on cap tables in a completely separate tab to the spreadsheet that shows the debt total by investor and then some kind of interest calculation. The problem, of course, is that their convert is already a part of their capitalization – even though it’s not reflected on the cap table.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Dilution Equity Deal Structure 93

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Choe opted to forgo a cash payment “in the thousands” for the equity equivalent at the time. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

It’s been about three months since equity crowdfunding was opened up to all Americans. This change means that virtually any individual, not just the wealthy, will have opportunities to make equity investments in early stage companies. The entrepreneurs I mentor ask me frequently about equity crowdfunding. Disclosures.

Equity 100

Equity United Kingdom Cap Table Oklahoma 100

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Working for Equity Instead of Cash. has an article on service firms waiving their fees and instead taking equity in their clients. Interest in this waned when the Internet bust resulted in most tech start-up equity becoming worthless, but it seems to be coming back. Not all start-up stock is created equally.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 2, 2017

The total value of these deals might look higher than when a tech company makes an acquihire but the premium tends to go to retention rather than the cap table (especially since (a) the acquirer might not be seen as an ‘attractive’ place to work and (b) there’s assumption of less equity upside post-acquisition).

Technical Review 116

Technical Review Cap Table Acquisition Startup 116

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Quite frankly, waiting provides more assurance around employment risk without the commensurate sacrifice in equity comp. Cap tables sound intimidating. In a CTO Salary and Equity trends report by Safire Partners, it finds non-founder equity compensation to settle out below 2 percent.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

VC Adventure

OCTOBER 8, 2012

This is typically reflected on cap tables in a completely separate tab to the spreadsheet that shows the debt total by investor and then some kind of interest calculation. The problem, of course, is that their convert is already a part of their capitalization – even though it’s not reflected on the cap table.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Dilution Equity Deal Structure 48

OnlyOnce

JULY 30, 2020

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

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

This structure offers some of the benefits of traditional equity VC, without some of the negatives of equity VC. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. We agree on a Return Cap which is a multiple of the initial investment (typically 3-5x). “We

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

Bigger/better advisors who get more equity have things like; excellent domain expertise to help you avoid pitfalls, deep connections within the industry to help with the intros, partnerships, and more. As a potential advisor looking to get involved with the company; MORE EQUITY! This leaves plenty of room for a final 4th advisor for

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Also, during the process, we had to clean up the company’s cap table and make sure that we all agreed on who owned what on a pro forma pre-money basis. Without having a complete pre-money cap table, it is impossible to calculate a share price. Sometimes those issues take extra time to resolve.

Term Sheet 58

Term Sheet Cap Table Technical Review IP 58

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

Most boards did some level of work to determine the FMV of a company’s stock but generally options were priced between 10% and 15% of a company’s then preferred price (because common equity sits behind preferred equity there is typically a discount applied to the FMV of common stock to account for this “overhang”).

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Unfortunately, what the CEO/founder forgets most often is that the notes have a multiplier effect in the post-money calculation; the more notes and the further the cap is from the new priced equity, the greater the variance between actual and nominal pre- and post-money valuations. It’s going to be great!”.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

As Jared notes, To hedge against this predictable outcome, more founders should adopt longer vesting cycles for themselves and the earliest (big equity) employees. Stretching things out to a six-year vest helps to prevent co-founder abandonment. That sucks for everyone.

Founder Vesting 60

Founder Vesting Vesting Cap Table Founder 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. and then asking to take a brochure home with you.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

You''re not a development shop that takes equity. Others talked as if they were the ones doing the deals--even though they''re just the ones making the cap tables in Excel. To me, the absolute minimum criteria has to be that you work for a venture capital fund. This means you have a pool of money. You''re not a broker.

Venture Capital 140

Venture Capital Cap Table Startup Early Stage 140

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful. Previous venture firms’ specific involvement on the cap table should be noted here, though. First, it’s helpful to enumerate the startup’s funding history to date.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Ask her if there’s someone senior in her career that’s been a great manager, and if so, bring them on as an equity-compensated advisor to your company. Or ask your cap table who is the best “XYZ” that they know and give them some skin in the game. You’re still ‘saving’ equity from the pool.

Hiring 60

Hiring Cap Table Equity Dividend 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

Would you take a check from a corporate raider whose private equity dollars come with mass layoffs and union-busting? Morality aside, I’d say given the inherent riskiness of startups, I’m not sure this would be a great addition to your cap table. What about someone who made their money running a for-profit prison? Drug kingpin?

Cap Table 163

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 163

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., equity that belongs to departed cofounders)? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

Revenue-Based Finance and Flexible VC investors invest using “alternative VC” structures, as opposed to conventional preferred equity and convertible notes. “Index the Best” – Only invest in companies that have brand name firms on the cap table and/or as leads. 5) Structure-defined funds.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

My experience with early valuations by founders for friends… I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years. Many accelerators have come and gone during these past five years.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

VC Adventure

MAY 10, 2020

That rule was designed to prevent companies under common ownership from accessing SBA funds, but as it applied to PPP, it potentially excluded any venture-backed companies where venture firms owned greater than 20% equity (and where the companies were not affiliated, they just shared a common investor). Exactly what this means isn’t clear.

SBA 79

SBA Affiliate Los Angeles Cap Table 79

OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Are you way under market in compensation and trying to overcome that by offering equity or “perks” to attract top talent? Another telltale sign that you might need a CFO is more tangible: Are you spending too much of your own time managing fundraising, debt, investors, and cap table questions and issues?

Hiring 117

Hiring Cap Table Finance Equity 117

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

For example: Don’t accept equity compensation (stock shares) without knowing the percentage of the company you’ll own. From there, I began googling things like “first employee startup equity” and “startup offer negotiation.” These were the best resources I found: Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups. Let’s go home.”

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Sometimes you’d even get lucky and receive stock in the acquirer, which was how I gained pre-IPO equity in high growth stars like Pinterest and Facebook. Cash is at a premium so it’s not going to cap tables (preferred or common walk away from the deals with no dinero). of the time my answer is no f **g way].

Early Stage 118

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 118