Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

I was reading one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs, VentureHacks, this weekend and noticed that they are running a long piece on how to pick a co-founder. Once it’s set up I recommend bringing in a co-founder and giving them 10-30% of the company depending upon when you bring them in. You’ll be fine.

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Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

View from Seed

JANUARY 26, 2016

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise of pre-seed rounds, but the strongest have been the frothy late-stage financing market, coupled with both the scaling-up of some of the early winners in the institutional seed ecosystem and the scaling-down of some larger funds that retrenched after the financial crisis.

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Seed Stage Early Stage Cofounder Finance 120

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. Less or no dilution.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

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?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 15, 2016

By the end of 2004 I had brought on two co-founders: John Vars – who is now the Chief Product Office at TaskRabbit, and Steven Reading took over Sales and Revenue. How do founders think about whether it’s time to move on or not? Ben Horowitz talks about asking founders what secret they know that no one else does.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Startup Cofounder SMS 48

The Startup Lawyer

AUGUST 22, 2011

Here’s a list of the top 5 deal terms that cause harm to startups at the seed financing stage and therefore should be avoided: 5. This is something you might see in a late stage private equity financing with a company that has a history of generating revenue. It does not belong in any early stage deal.

Angel Investor 99

Angel Investor Dividend Dilution Cofounder 99

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

What I want to talk about today is one of the insider baseball discussions of our industry this past week: The odd fact of the $500 million financing round completed just before the company sold for a B. You just said, “nobody would take 1-2% dilution.” But I owe it to my existing investors and co-founders to listen.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

I’ve often found it helpful to have on hand a simple model showing the impact of each financing stages on all team members, suitable for sharing with everyone in the company. In particular, this model is designed to help all team members understand the impact of dilution on their options.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 28, 2013

Every time he opens his mouth about founder diversity, he seems completely out of his league to address the topic. The biggest question I think VC''s face right now is whether or not, in the future, the best founders will look and act like the best founders of the past. That''s less than 10%. That''s 25%.

Venture Capital 152

Venture Capital Cofounder IRR Dilution 152

Berkonomics

AUGUST 27, 2015

He has served as advisor to and member of numerous financial exchanges, and was the founder and CEO of Arthur Lipper Corporation and co-founder and Chairman of New York & Foreign Securities Corporation. Today he serves as Chairman of British Far East Holdings Ltd.

Intellectual Property 48

Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Stock Options Valuation 48

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Don’t make everyone a founder. Early Stage.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

Now the bad news: some venture capitallists have a bias against startups with an explicit positive social impact, on the grounds that they have a smaller addressable market, and that the founders are not sufficiently focused on creating shareholder wealth. If you think I’ve missed any, please contact me. J.M.Kaplan Innovation Prize. “The

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. As equity in the company tends to be the currency of early stage startups, the startup should have a good foundation for assigning value in terms of equity.

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Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2021

It seems like every day there is a new headline about an exceptional startup founder, investor, or corporate headquarters moving to Texas. The Innovation Center at Houston’s TMC (TMCx), co-located with Johnson and Johnson’s J-Labs, and the Center for Medical Device Innovation, drive medical innovation. Joe Lonsdale. Drew Houston.

Texas 90

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 90

aweissman.com

JANUARY 30, 2010

There is an amazing wealth of innovation around early stage venture financing, most of which developed in just the past few years. Then there are new economic models - Founders Collective being the most prominent now, ("None of us have ever been bankers. If not, the value of the exchange fund is diluted.

Early Stage 46

Early Stage Entrepreneur Cofounder Framework 46

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

Financing, that is.I Since the iControl system chronicles all meetings, I was able to find the automatic picture snapped from my first meeting with the founders, Reza Raji and Chris Stevens on April 22, 2004. One truth of start-up financing is that it generally takes twice as long and twice as much money to accomplish your milestones.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Whats is the best way to find a co-founder for your startup? I’m part of an early startup made up of four friends, we’re all motivated and really dedicated to our startup. However, one of my co-founders doesn’t seem to be as motivated as the rest of us. Non of this academic stuff.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Type to Add and Search Questions; Search Topics and People Startups Startup Compensation Entrepreneurship Compensation Stock Options Major Internet Companies Silicon Valley Why is there such a large founder to early employee equity drop-off? The real question here is: why is it fair for founders to get so much more?

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

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. Hopefully each lead or co-lead their round so there is more harmony in the configuration. If you select a lead VC make sure they’re stage appropriate.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. The new money comes in at a pre-money valuation of $100, but includes a complete refresh of founder equity to 40% of the company. Sure – it happens.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

The Next Web

DECEMBER 3, 2013

The person reading your application form will have a wealth of experience in this area and know if you’re applying the infamous ‘reality distortion field’ pioneered by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. ”So One founder] really focused his presentation,” Campbell recalls. “He So by default you’ll just say ‘next…’”. Be honest.

Startup 153

Startup Cofounder Valuation Dilution 153

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Read also: Q&A with Business Incubator Co-founder Joe Maruschak. Peter: Yeah, that’s a perfect question for a recent article we posted called Q&A with Business Incubator Co-founder Joe Maruschak. Send us an email: Bcast@Bplans.com. Listen to Episode 8: Show notes: Charlie’s Email – (:31).

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Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60

Up and Running

DECEMBER 9, 2014

Bates: Good morning and welcome to our CEO panel, “How to Fine-Tune Your Small Business Finances From Funding to Growth” which I think is the direction that we would all like to be going. I’m here with some really phenomenal CEOs who are going to talk to us today about small business finances from funding to growth.

Small Business 95

Small Business Finance Forecast Metrics 95