David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. 2010 Operating Income: $16 million. 2010 Net Income: $8 million. as of 12/31/09).

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 25, 2015

Typically, investors will be interested in “preferred” stock, which comes with special (aka “preferred”) rights, such as receiving a certain payout before anyone who holds “common” stock. This means that the corporation can hold onto money from year to year beyond its operating expenses—with some effect on the company’s taxes.

LLC 100

LLC Technical Review Software Review Limited Liability Company 100

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

Between my experiences as a management consultant, as well as my product and marketing roles at multiple tech companies, I felt that I had enough operational experience to make that leap sooner than later. C Corp versus LLC, non-competes, liquidation preferences, preferred versus common stock, and so on).

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2018

I’ll never forget that great sense of excitement I felt when I incorporated my first business, and realized that I was now the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock. Of course, initially these founder’s shares were worth essentially nothing, but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to grasp the possibilities.

Stock 129

Stock Vesting Preferred Stock Cofounder 129

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. A pre-IPO board usually had two founders, two VCs and one “independent” member. Technology Cycles Measured in Years.

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Likewise, founders can benefit from understanding basic characteristics of the overall legal structure, formation and governance documents, rights and responsibilities of team members, etc. Determine who will serve on the Board of Directors and in executive officer positions (usually founders). Offer letters for employees.

Intellectual Property 139

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Delaware Stock 139