Hunter Walker

MARCH 14, 2019

Across town a different CEO is having a breakfast with her Series A Board partner. You almost spit out your coffee when she lets you know that she’s leaving for a Tier 1 firm but that her partners John, John Jr or Robert will be great stewards of your startup until she has the pull at her new gig to lead your next round.

Cap Table 95

Cap Table Dilution Silicon Valley Portfolio 95

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.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

So, rather than try and fill time unnecessarily and create a lengthy deck just because you’re “supposed to,” Rob — and we’d guess many other VCs as well — will often suggest that a founder create a simple one-sheeter that might start small and build over time. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

Cautionary note: No competent VC is actually fooled when you show up after raising $6M in seed financing and say you’re now raising an A! 5 million was always the classic definition of an A-round between the late nineties (crazy financings aside) and say 2007. It is less about actual money and more about structure of your Cap Table.

Cap Table 136

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Non-Compete 136

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

We each independently fell in love with enterprise software 20+ years ago as seed investors (cos like gotomeeting/Citrix, greenplum/EMC, livperson/IPO LPSN) and founders (workmarket, onforce/Adecco, spinback/buddymedia/salesf0rce) and are now benefiting from the ecosystems, knowledge and network that we’ve collectively developed.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Dividend Institutional Investors 60

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. I tried to get hired at Better Place and failed. Enter Box. They gave me a shot.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

On the heels of the announcement we made last month about our Series B financing , we are now announcing the launch of a new program called Bolster Prime and a new venture capital fund called Bolster Ventures. In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

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. Access to the partner. If you’ve put money into a fund, I think it’s reasonable to expect that partner to check out the deal flow that you find on your own, and let you know what they think.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

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

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? Optionality.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Last week I spoke with a partner at a large VC firm whose firm has been around for a long time. The partner that I talked to told me that they are doing 30 seed investments out of their newest fund. Tags: Seed Financing angel seed VC. I thought this was a pretty clever way to deal with this issue.

Cap Table 134

Cap Table Reputation Finance Programming 134

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. 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. Cobalt for General Partners helps GPs to optimize their fundraising strategy. 1) Manage the firm

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Simeon, can you tell us how you structure ownership and control so you can fire your co-founders if necessary? The first part will dispel some myths, address the lifecycle of founder agreements and the key compensation and control parameters in them. Let’s start by dispelling some myths: There is a standard founder agreement.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Some of the best later-stage investors walk founders through an institutionalized “reverse” pitch. If you find yourself in the fortunate position of being oversubscribed, you’ll likely look to build the best investor base and find the right partners for your journey. How do you decide who you should have in your cap table?

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. There were none in the firm, so I remember asking him if he knew of any general partners who were women in the Boston area.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS How to pick a co-founder by Naval Ravikant on November 12th, 2009 Update : Also see our 40-minute interview on this topic. Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. One founder companies can work, against the odds (hello, Mark Zuckerberg).

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder is able to 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 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. is frequently granted ownership significantly less than that of the founders. However, at the very early stage, they are taking as much risk with their future as the founders. Cap tables sound intimidating.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Genuine VC

MAY 20, 2013

Compared to most other areas of finance, venture capital is practiced as more of an art, as opposed to a science. Otherwise, what I’d call a “credible introduction” is sufficient provided there’s also an additional piece of information (key founder background, specific space, etc.)

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. The Perils of Many.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

Apart from the founders and employees of the company, Sequoia Capital was the big winner, and that was recognized by everyone. This tends to make LPs happy and make the lead partner look good among his or her colleagues. Techcrunch’s friday report mentioned that the last round’s financing was done with 3X participation.

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Valuation Finance Institutional Investors 78

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

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.&# Update : Check out our $9 cap table which calculates the effect of the option pool shuffle on your effective valuation. Do you mean the shares go to the founders?

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

Just before the IPO, I had a far-reaching conversation with co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong as he approached this major milestone for the company he co-founded back in 2012. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase. So I've been able to move to another location with my partner and another city, I should say. I'm curious.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113