View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. Team: Hires, fires, departures, responsibility changes, major promotions, and your org chart.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters. Choe’s equity is a headline-grabbing example of “dead equity”: equity owned by people who are no longer actively working for the startup. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. The mode purpose for funding is (in order of frequency) Sales, Marketing, Market Expansion, Product Development, and Hiring Employees. “ You qualify if you have $5k+ MRR. Bigfoot Capital. Decathlon Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

OnlyOnce

MAY 26, 2022

Post 4 of 4 in the series on Scaling CFOs – other posts are How to Engage with Your CFO , When it is Time to Hire Your First Chief Financial Officer , and What Does “Great” Look Like in a CFO? ). So, getting this role right is one of the most important tasks of any startup team. Trust your gut. Posted on the Bolster blog here ).

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Forecast Finance Metrics 62

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

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters. Choe’s equity is a headline-grabbing example of “dead equity”: equity owned by people who are no longer actively working for the startup. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

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. worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. This is another big week for us at Bolster.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

This is awesome not just for us but also for enterprise startups in NYC. West coast founders now fully understand why having a NYC investor on their cap table pays huge dividends and west coast VCs are regularly leading Series A and B rounds in NYC. Having more capital will only further our mission, not change it.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Dividend Institutional Investors 60

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Planning, Startups, Stories. 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. Have not met anyone I wanted to hire who was willing to work for equity. OReilly Radar.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

Hunter Walk: Ok, so we first met when you were leading comms at enterprise software company Box, a startup you joined when they were still pretty early and stayed at until post-IPO. I tried to get hired at Better Place and failed. When I learned they were hiring a community manager, I threw everything I had at the interview process.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

This is the classic “hire people smarter than you” which is harder said than done. I have seen what I call “predatory advisors” come in and really mess up a cap table by promising big intros and sales contracts only to disappear after the first 6-12 months. Think about the things you DON’T know.

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Cap tables sound intimidating. What’s everyone else getting?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

As a startup in 2017, having limited resources can in and of itself sink your entire ship. Without raising money, 1 of 2 situations would have fallen upon us: I would have had to dig deeper into my own pockets to continue to pay the contractor as well as hire others. But as an early stage startup, accountability is so important.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. 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. Most venture-funded startups have different classes of stock: common and various flavors of preferred.

Equity 56

Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

How do you decide who you should have in your cap table? Are you looking for help and expertise in hiring, product strategy, customer development, fundraising, coaching, therapy, etc.? Lastly, dig down into how an investor behaved during new financing rounds or during exits. What is important to you?

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. For more on gathering data and using it to assess companies, see How to Assess Startups Using Machine Learning. 2) Market . 8) Monitor .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

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. If you’ve read and liked these posts, let others know.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 5, 2021

Startup CEOs Should Test Strength of Cap Table Every ~6 Months To Know Where They Stand. As a venture fund I might have a strategy which says “for every dollar I invest into companies, I will hold one dollar in reserve for additional financings.” Go read it and then come back here…. Long term greedy!!!!

Cap Table 95

Cap Table Seed Stage Syndicate Syndication 95

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Among her early investments are Lyft, TaskRabbit and Modcloth, which, as our recent conversation shows, are only part of the reason Forbes called her “the most powerful woman in startups.” Ann will be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October about all of this and more. This last year, I taught a blockchain class.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

OnlyOnce

JULY 14, 2022

I wrote a little bit about the experience of being a multi-time founder in this post where I talked about the value of things like a hand-picked team, hand-picked cap table, experience that drives efficient execution, and starting with a clean slate. The post Second Lap Around the Track appeared first on The Startup CEO blog.

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Founder Portfolio Finance 62

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. VCs who swear publicly that they’ll never make an investment with less than 20% ownership show up on cap tables in the teens… the 20% pronouncements are just posturing for negotiation.

Venture Capital 244

Venture Capital Cap Table Portfolio Early Stage 244

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. Two founders works because unanimity is possible, there are no founder politics, interests can easily align, and founder stakes are high post-financing. FAQs What if the right guy already has his own startup? Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. Date first.

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

Austin Startup

MAY 17, 2017

It’s pretty well known that startups usually undergo a meaningful change in Board composition at their Series A round. Less has been written about what startup boards tend to look like before a Series A round. At a minimum, the lead investor(s) of the round get Board seats; although they shouldn’t get Board control. They just advise.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Startup Cap Table Angel Investor 48

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. Advisor compensation Whether you’re hiring a normal advisor or super advisor: Advisory shares are usually issued as common stock options. A naive entrepreneur hires the wrong business advisor and a major new investor asks the entrepreneur to clean up the dead wood. .&#

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. Use a hiring plan to justify a small option pool, increase your share price, and increase your effective valuation. 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.&#

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

It'd be great if we could somehow hire people all over the world, that would be great. And of course, I wasn't really interested in the finance side of it to me. And we had just had massive challenges trying to move money to the different contractors we were hiring in different places. I'm curious. ER : I couldn't believe it.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113