Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 30, 2020

Every startup needs to start their funding search looking for grants, with no equity dilution, as well as contests and foundations. These often lead to angel investors and venture capital investments later, or connections to local company venture funds for selected focus and technology areas.

Arizona 310

Arizona Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Dividend 310

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2010

If you want to raise venture capital more easily the advice could be quite practical and counter-intuitive. Many companies that are raising B or C venture capital rounds right now raised their initial money in 2005-2008. management, founders, angel investors) get any money. It is 2010.

Venture Capital 289

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Common Stock Dividend 289

ReadWriteStart

APRIL 4, 2023

While these fees may seem reasonable at first glance, they can add up quickly and significantly impact the amount of capital that the startup receives from the crowdfunding campaign. Too many lenders to keep track of makes it hard to manage the various people who have a stake in your venture and their different expectations.

Startup 141

Startup Campaign Cofounder Venture Capital 141

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.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

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 you don’t, please educate yourself on this site, Venture Hacks and the term sheet series by Brad Feld/Jason Mendelson, among other places. Anti-dilution protection.

Finance 70

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?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

I was having dinner with a friend last night and we were chatting about venture capital and a bit about what I’ve learned. Co-founder discontent. Reference checking is to confirm or disprove a strong, positive intuition you already have about founders that could lead to an investment or a pass.

Cofounder 374

Cofounder Syndicate Syndication Early Stage 374

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. However, in this moment, I think one''s career in venture capital depends on changing your perspective. The classes got too big and quality was diluted because, by PG''s own admission, YC " grew too fast.".

Venture Capital 152

Venture Capital Cofounder IRR Dilution 152

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. Less or no dilution.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2016

Every startup needs to start their funding search looking for grants, with no equity dilution, as well as contests and foundations. These often lead to angel investors and venture capital investments later, or connections to local company venture funds for selected focus and technology areas.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Entrepreneur Incubator 120

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

Very cool concept and I want to thank the founder Adil Mohammed for inviting me to take part in it. I’ve learned this first hand from Mark Gerson, the founder of Gerson Lehrman Group. As the founder, you’re the number one sales person of the company and it is not a function you can outsource right away.

Elevator Pitch 102

Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

David Teten

NOVEMBER 17, 2011

In particular, this model is designed to help all team members understand the impact of dilution on their options. Such a model is particularly helpful for those founders looking for a co-founder or key employee. Such a model is particularly helpful for those founders looking for a co-founder or key employee.

Employee 155

Employee IRR Startup Mexico 155

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

You’ve found yourself in a super hot category and – let’s face it – it’s still a very frothy venture capital funding market so you may have loads of VCs chasing you. 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

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Chip Morse , cofounder and partner with Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton P.C., Besides the future potential earnings youre forgoing, youre also diluting your own ownership in the company. For example, Morse notes that neither C corporations nor venture capital funds structured as partnerships can, by law, be S corporation shareholders.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. You can start by examining every aspect of the co-founder relationship. Don’t leave anything out just because you and your co-founders already talked about it.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Neil Rimer is a Partner and co-founder of Index Ventures. Yet, surprisingly, we continue to come across founders who have made significant mistakes in their early capital raises that we suspect go against their own instincts and jeopardize the foundations of the businesses they are building.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 3, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Understanding Venture Capital. I recently wrote a blog post on understanding how the size and age of a venture capital fund might affect you when you’re raising money. They said that they didn’t want the extra money or dilution. We took the $500k. is now a VC.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Term Sheet Early Stage Silicon Valley 265

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 25, 2018

Still in business today and run by my co-founder. I decided I wasn’t passionate about running an ad-supported business and sold my stake to my co-founder. I failed to do that with Coremetrics and I paid dearly for it with dilution. They are the capital enablers for big business ideas.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Austin Equity Cofounder 48

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve seen a range of options for supporting entrepreneurs, which I can rank from least to most involvement in companies by investors: financier VCs, e.g., Correlation Ventures. The question is: how should they be compensated when cofounding a company? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

The graphic below balances the risks cofounders take with their relative contributions to help answer this question. This covers one of the most common situations I encounter: For a pre-funding web startup whose team includes only a non-technical cofounder, how much equity should an incoming technical cofounder get?

Technical Cofounder 43

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 28, 2014

This week, we present legendary angel investor Ron Conway (commonly referred to as the “ Godfather of Silicon Valley ”) and Marc Andreessen , a brilliant entrepreneur and co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Ron Conway (at 1:37). Marc Andreessen (at 2:43).

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Venture Capital 67

Pascal's View

DECEMBER 30, 2012

While every company founder makes trade-offs in building a company, few entrepreneurs appreciate the far-reaching implications of several critical decisions they will are required to make at the outset of a startup’s evolution. Most founders tend to make decisions with no process, based on their gut instincts.

Cofounder 34

Cofounder Liquidation Preference Vesting Equity 34

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 1, 2010

The Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation includes the typical provisions you might find in a VC deal, less (i) preferential dividends, (ii) redemption rights, and (iii) price based anti-dilution. It also scales back the right of first refusal and jettisons the co-sale right. 3) Investors’ Rights Agreement.

Preferred Stock 79

Preferred Stock Term Sheet Redemption Registration Rights 79

Scott Edward Walker

APRIL 9, 2012

Venture capital funds, seed funds, super angels, angel groups, incubators, and “friends and family” are all playing the seed financing game and investing early in startups in an attempt to land the next Facebook. and (iii) what securities laws do founders need to worry about in connection with the issuance of convertible notes?

Preferred Stock 87

Preferred Stock Finance Common Stock Liquidation Preference 87

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 2, 2015

It''s a co-working space full of creatives and freelancers, most of whom who have never pitched an investor, and probably never seen a startup pitch either. Most founders barely have anything that looks like anything at this point, and most of them haven''t done this before. Venture Capital & Technology' Best of luck.

Cofounder 60

Cofounder Venture Capital Dilution Founder 60

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

Introduction This post originally appeared in the “ Ask the Attorney ” column I am writing for VentureBeat ; it is part of my ongoing series regarding venture capital term sheets. What Are the Key Issues for Founders? Second, founders should only agree to pay the investors’ legal fees and expenses if the deal actually closes.

Term Sheet 76

Term Sheet Due Diligence Liquidation Preference Redemption 76

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

Nearly every major Silicon Valley venture-capital firm has now invested in a B Corp ; maybe you will be one of them! I’m now researching non-dilutive funding for Action Tank , a startup I’m gestating to “Make America Functional Again”. Notley Ventures. J.M.Kaplan Innovation Prize. “The Pioneer.app. “Get

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

I happen to be fascinated by the history of the VC industry, and one of the things we discussed at a recent offsite are the common threads behind the rise and fall of great venture capital firms. Some disgruntled younger partners left in the mid-90s… two co-founded Benchmark Capital (Bruce Dunlevie & Andy Rachleff).

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 12, 2012

The first amendment relies on the definition of « founder » and imposes a minimal ownership of 10% of the company and a holding period of two to five years to benefit from a lower tax rate. The second amendment proposes to apply tax rebates on capital gains applicable over a six years period for those who cannot meet the founder status.

France 71

France Europe Capital Gains Dilution 71

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

And as everyone’s attention starts to focus on those same indicators, their value is being diluted. We faced this same problem in entrepreneurship and venture capital, but we are getting past it. In the absence of real data, gatekeepers are having to rely on much more tenuous indicators.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Aligning the Startup Team Strategy with the Capitalization Strategy. The single most important factor to raising capital for any tech startup is the management team. This is true for early stage funding as well as venture capital funding. Don’t make everyone a founder. Seed to Series A.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital. With open source software (LAMP stack) and cloud computing infrastructure it just wasn’t that expensive to get your company going and founders just wanted to raise less money. I would say the same thing about True Ventures. They have a large-ish fund.

Software Review 283

Software Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Southern California 283

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 1, 2010

The Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation includes the typical provisions you might find in a VC deal, less (i) preferential dividends, (ii) redemption rights, and (iii) price based anti-dilution. It also scales back the right of first refusal and jettisons the co-sale right. 3) Investors’ Rights Agreement.

Preferred Stock 40

Preferred Stock Term Sheet Redemption Registration Rights 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

But we weren’t optimizing for dilution – we were building a $1 billion+ company and we wanted the runway to succeed. My co-founder and other management team members wanted us to hold off and see whether we could get the deal done at a higher price. It quickly became impossible to raise venture capital.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

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

Professor VC

JUNE 20, 2011

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. At this time, we had secured a term sheet from a co-investor from one of my other angel investments (Thanks, Graeme!) So what does this all mean.

San Jose 28

San Jose Angel Investor Term Sheet Venture Capital 28