Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2020

The simple solution I recommend to inventors is to find a partner who can focus on business and marketing, while you focus on technology. In fact, they may fear team leadership as a burden, or a potential dilution of their ownership. Two people with complementary skills are often equal to three.

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Founder Intellectual Property Dilution Startup 312

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The Founder succession dilemma.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The founder succession dilemma.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

In reality, too many choices actually dilutes customer interest in your existing market, and makes your job of production, marketing, and support much more complex. Ongoing momentum requires a move to mainstream, or even late adopters, who demand simplicity in your base function. Focus first on finding more of the right customers.

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Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Don’t wait for the harsh reality of the demanding business world to start thinking about these tradeoffs. The Founder succession dilemma.

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Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2018

Unfortunately, in my years since as a small business advisor, I have seen too many founders squander this asset through a lack of understanding of some basic legal and operational issues, or by handing out nominally “free” stock to the wrong people at the wrong time. Always specify a vesting period for new partners.

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Stock Vesting Preferred Stock Cofounder 129

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2015

It’s disconcerting for most to realize that these shares are initially worth nothing, and the challenge is to get that value up as quickly as possible, without losing it just as quickly to investors, lazy partners and taxation. Key founder vesting should have no cliff. This is called stock dilution control.

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Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 30, 2018

I know that some founders feel uncomfortable with this as though they might somehow be sharing something so confidential that it ultimately hurts you. If a VC prices a flat or down round it means that management teams are often taking too much dilution. Why shouldn’t most founders just name a price? After all?—?we million.

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Valuation Post-Money Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder 324

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR – disclaimer, I represent the Founders Institute and was involved in drafting this document). If new investors get better rights in a future equity financings (such as registration rights, price-based anti-dilution, redemption rights, etc.), Anti-dilution protection.

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Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders?

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Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

First, if the VC does 15-20 of these under one partner then it is certain he can’t spend any time with these investments. They said that they didn’t want the extra money or dilution. You were a VP at a company that sold for $200 million making the founder very wealthy. That founder wasn’t one of your angels.

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Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 17, 2021

Greylock investor Sridhar Ramaswamy , who co-founded search engine startup Neeva , says it’s more important for startups to think about creating a product that is useful and resonates with people before worrying about whether a large incumbent is doing it. They’re both fruit, but they’re very different in terms of how they operate.

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Cofounder Differentiation Search Advertising 69

Reid Hoffman

AUGUST 17, 2021

Greylock investor Sridhar Ramaswamy , who co-founded search engine startup Neeva , says it’s more important for startups to think about creating a product that is useful and resonates with people before worrying about whether a large incumbent is doing it. They’re both fruit, but they’re very different in terms of how they operate.

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Cofounder Differentiation Search Advertising 69

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

What is the best advice you can give for finding a business partner? Don’t quickly choose any business partner. Whats is the best way to find a co-founder for your startup? However, one of my co-founders doesn’t seem to be as motivated as the rest of us. That like quickly choosing a wife.

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Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Here’s the problem: Let’s say you have 5 VCs (plus angels but let’s ignore that for now) and each one owns 5% so you took 25% dilution to get the round done. Let’s say each of those 5 partners has at least 7 other investments each. The most common case is that the partner who did the deal left the firm.

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Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

Many experienced partners are funds have 7-10 boards and most of these will need more capital. The Laws of Supply & Demand. The most basic chart of microeconomics is a supply & demand curve. Demand represents a buyer and supply a seller. This is how VCs feel. Now for every dollar a VC raises $2.50 The result?

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. In many cases, one founder has started earlier and brings an important completed piece of work to the table, and that can have great value. Pre-existing intellectual property.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. In many cases, one founder has started earlier and brings an important completed piece of work to the table, and that can have great value. Pre-existing intellectual property.

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Equity Intellectual Property Cofounder CTO Hire 228

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

If your brand tries to be too many things at once, the message becomes scattered and the brand grows diluted. For example, Charles Revson, founder of Revlon, always used to say he sold hope, not makeup. Lee Fredericksen, Managing Partner at Hinge Marketing explains : A brand promise is an extension of a company’s positioning.

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Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162