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. Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

OnlyOnce

JULY 30, 2020

For many startup CEOs the culmination of their life’s work is an exit of some kind (other than being fired!). 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. But there probably is a right or wrong answer for YOU.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Institutional Investors Startup Early Stage 48

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. Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

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. Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

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. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

“Worst case scenario we’ll sell to a larger startup or public company for about ~$1.5m I was on both sides of these transactions – buying startups for Google/YouTube and angel investing in high quality technical founders. per engineer.” of the time my answer is no f **g way].

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

How I negotiated my startup compensation. When I started thinking about joining Keen, I quickly realized there is a lot I don’t know about startups. For example: Don’t accept equity compensation (stock shares) without knowing the percentage of the company you’ll own. I knew enough to know I wanted to join a startup.

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Planning, Startups, Stories. 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. Small Business Blogs.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Why Pairing Junior Executives With External Mentors Can Accelerate Your Hiring and Their Professional Development Often at a startup it’s better to hire for talent, ambition, and commitment, than years in role or ‘did they have the job already somewhere else.’ What should your relationship (as a founder) be with this person?

Hiring 60

Hiring Cap Table Equity Dividend 60

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

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. Dealing with VCs Management Startup Life' And Happy Holidays!

Term Sheet 58

Term Sheet Cap Table Technical Review IP 58

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

For most founders, fundraising is a struggle. 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. Drug kingpin?

Cap Table 163

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 163

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

August 20, 2017: This is another in my series of posts all leading up to a book on Startup Decision Making. One of the most common mistakes I see in startups is making decisions that lose sight of the context , including the past, present, and future. Sooner or later everybody in a startup knows what everyone else is getting paid.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

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). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

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. No problem.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

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

OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Lots of startups have nothing more than an outsourced bookkeeper or one junior staff accountant. Sometimes a founder or a founder’s spouse even steps in on this front. As startups scale, they are likely to hire a more senior accountant, maybe an AR/AP/Collections staff member, or even a Controller or VP Finance.

Hiring 117

Hiring Cap Table Finance Equity 117

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 27, 2017

TL;DR : “Founder friendliness” should mean not being hostile, but also not being submissive, to founders. Common Stock Ask the Users Because we’re known as Startup/VC lawyers who don’t represent VCs (just companies), I often get asked about my thoughts on “founder friendliness.” Good entrepreneurs and advisors know that.

Founder 48

Founder Cap Table Preferred Stock Common Stock 48

Hippoland

APRIL 10, 2016

Dear elizy : I started a company in school with two co-founders. We are trying to decide how much equity to allocate to each person. I would like to split the equity equally, since it seems only fair. But, Ada wants to split the equity 50% her, 20% Bob and 20% me with a 10% option pool. Let’s call them Ada and Bob.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Cap Table Equity Vesting 48

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2021

Before we founded Homebrew I made ~20 or so investments in startups using my own savings. All in all it worked out fine, driven primary by some fortunate acquisitions to companies like Microsoft, Pinterest and Facebook, the latter two in pre-IPO equity which grew substantially prior to their public listings.

Cap Table 140

Cap Table IRR Angel Investor IPO 140

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Neil Rimer is a Partner and co-founder of Index Ventures. As the European startup ecosystem matures, you would expect young entrepreneurs to enjoy ever-increasing access to useful advice from mentors, business leaders, experienced entrepreneurs, legal advisors and investors.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

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

David Teten

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

I wrote recently about Should you raise venture capital from a traditional equity VC or a Revenue-Based Investing VC? 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. Revenue-based investing VC.

SBIC 60

SBIC SBA Cap Table Database 60

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Most startup founders do not have enough capital to launch their companies and need to raise money at some point. Individual investors who provide financial funding to startups are called ‘Angel Investors.’ Among the most common methods of funding used by startups when raising seed capital is “Convertible Debt Financing.”

Finance 93

Finance Accredited Investor Angel Investor Seed Capital 93

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. 6 Founders / Restricted Stock. 7 Salary vs Equity. The re-heating of the venture funded tech market has pushed a heat up of the hiring market, and Im getting more calls from friends asking for help understanding startup stock (equity) offers. From Payne.org Wiki. 3 Dilution.

Equity 56

Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

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. Our original deck envisioned a firm that was sort of a hybrid of a “McKinsey for startups” and a venture investor.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

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. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. But should they?

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

venturehacks.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. The Equity Equation. As this nuclear winter of venture hacks continues, I thought you might enjoy our thoughts on Paul Graham’s The Equity Equation. ” Read the rest of The Equity Equation first; it is great. You have to pay market rates regardless of the equity equation.

Equity 40

Equity Cap Table Valuation RSS 40

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

You lose influence as larger investors come into the cap table and start throwing their weight around. 4/ Orthogonal Competition – I recently tweeted about a new breed of early-stage technology investor that has its roots in public equities (hedge funds, long/short, etc.) You lose way more than you win.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

Board Effect

MAY 10, 2019

Capitalization tables—”cap tables” for those who don’t have time for extra syllables—map the balance of power in a company. If org charts are about people power , cap tables are about money power. In reality, however, cap tables are often far more complex. What is a cap table?

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Liquidation Preference Dilution Liquidity Event 40

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

I have been thinking a lot recently about how to apply agile development principles to investing and key aspects of startup development such as team building. The first post is about agile startup fundraising. The follow-on post is about agile startup team building. All founders have the same agreement. Urban legends.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

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). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 21, 2017

It’s fashionable in certain quarters now to slate some of the billion dollar startups that have been created recently and the investors that helped them get there. Five of the six largest companies in the world today were venture backed startups and just about all net new job creation comes from young companies.

San Francisco 90

San Francisco Cap Table Angel Investor Valuation 90

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

I recently got a question from a person in a large company who is thinking about joining a startup that expects to raise venture capital. I am not even sure what “undiluted stock” is, but safe to say the person (I will call him Exec X) meant stock that his equity would not be dilutable in terms of ownership.

Dilution 53

Dilution Employee Cap Table Stock 53

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

As a startup in 2017, having limited resources can in and of itself sink your entire ship. There are so many people, products, and startups that are vying for their attention, that it’s harder than ever to rise above the noise. But as an early stage startup, accountability is so important. Something has to give.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Yet, the lessons learned from their $8mm round of funding announced this week are still widely applicable to every startup--particularly food startups and those in four walls retail that struggle through the traditional venture process. Here's what I think everyone involved learned in this process. 3) Find a flexible lead.

Cap Table 90

Cap Table Cofounder Valuation .Net 90