Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Founders and hires have always quit, after all, and their companies don’t always have a way to reclaim their equity.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

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 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 24, 2012

The following is an excerpt from HBS Professor Noam Wasserman’s new book, The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. The book taps Noam’s analyses of data on 10,000 founders, plus the personal stories of Evan Williams of Twitter, Tim Westergren of Pandora, and two dozen other founders.

Equity 168

Equity Founder Cofounder Vesting 168

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2013

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Later, when your venture is trying to close on financing, or even going public, that forgotten partner surfaces, demanding their original share.

Non-Compete 235

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Startup Cofounder 235

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Founders and hires have always quit, after all, and their companies don’t always have a way to reclaim their equity.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. Co-founders are an entirely different discussion and I am not talking about them in this post. This "best value" can be the valuation on the last round of financing. Or it can be a recent offer to buy your company that you turned down.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2012

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Later, when your venture is trying to close on financing, or even going public, that forgotten partner surfaces, demanding their original share.

Non-Compete 249

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder Startup 249

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2011

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Early co-founders often drop out of the picture due to disagreements, and you forget about them, but they don’t forget about the verbal promises you made.

Non-Compete 246

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Entrepreneur Cofounder 246

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS How to pick a co-founder by Naval Ravikant on November 12th, 2009 Update : Also see our 40-minute interview on this topic. Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. One founder companies can work, against the odds (hello, Mark Zuckerberg).

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Finance | Tuesdays. Financing a Small Business. Financing A Small Business. Personal Finance. Before Roving Software could receive its first round of financing from professional investors, in early 1999, he had to put all the stock arrangements in writing. Start-up | Mondays. Technology | Thursdays. Franchises.

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. 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.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

Total = 0.75% for 3 advisors that vest as you see fit to help you over the next 1–4 years (more on vesting below). Big strategic advisors are the folks that add credibility to your co. from a 10 year old co. Here are the questions I like to see founders ask potential advisors; 1. Vesting Schedules.

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

Entrepreneurs and investors who have spent any time dealing with convertible debt seed financing transactions are likely to have encountered the subject of valuation caps. The cap is irrelevant if the next equity financing is at a valuation below the cap amount.) was spun out, and the valuation was set by that financing round.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

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

www.copelandfirm.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Home About Fee Arrangements Location Referrals Testimonials Business Law HUB Certification Mergers & Acquisitions Startup Advice Intellectual Property Copyrights Trademarks Securities Law Debt and Bridge Financing Series A Startup Law Entity Formation Corporation LLC Series LLC RSS Founders Shares: How do you split them up?

Intellectual Property 40

Intellectual Property Founder Vesting Bridge Financing 40

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 11, 2017

The press release lays out Joe Zhu’s business accomplishments, but we at the magazine have seen firsthand Joe Zhu’s work behind the scenes helping struggling startups with advice and counsel on both business strategy and funding, even when he has no vested interest. SmartHealth is built upon passion and proximity.

Illinois 76

Illinois Chicago Entrepreneur Cofounder 76

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2010

Here are some examples: Failure to document a founder agreement at the beginning. This shortcut can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Early co-founders often drop out of the picture due to disagreements, and you forget about them, but they don’t forget about the verbal promises you made.

Non-Compete 125

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Startup Cofounder 125

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). Newco, Inc.”)

Intellectual Property 139

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Delaware Stock 139

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010

NextView Ventures co-founder Rob Go admitted last month to being unaware of this aspect of the venture capital industry when he entered it. In a post titled The Preils of Follow-On Financing Decisions , Go notes some of the reasons investors may wrongly flood struggling startups with cash, one being to save face.

Management 115

Management Vesting Angel Investor Startup 115

ithacaVC

APRIL 29, 2011

Hypo: 3 co-founders start a business with Joe initially owning 35%, Lisa initially owning 35% and Steve initially owning 30%. Joe is CEO/Leader, Lisa is tech/science and Steve handles finance and marketing. ride around on a motorcycle) from the hard work of the continuing founders. What are the vesting increments?

Vesting 53

Vesting Cofounder Stock Options Stock 53

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

Richard Witten , special advisor on entrepreneurship to the President of Columbia University ; and Kathryn Minshew , co-founder of the popular online career platform TheMuse.com both joined me in Sirius’ New York studio and shared their version of being knocked down and coming back stronger. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur New York Cofounder Equity 120

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor / founder interests. I had multiple term sheets to do my Series A financing. One very important item from Chris’s original post that wasn’t picked up by Fred or Brad is founder vesting.

Founder Vesting 252

Founder Vesting Vesting Founder Term Sheet 252

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 1, 2010

“The Series Seed Documents are a standardized set of documents that can be quickly and easily deployed for a seed investment: to help get a company financed properly, legally, quickly, and intelligently.&#. It also scales back the right of first refusal and jettisons the co-sale right. 4) Term Sheet. Check out the docs here.

Preferred Stock 79

Preferred Stock Term Sheet Redemption Registration Rights 79

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 21, 2010

If I ever say anything less than positive, I have no vested interests in doing so. In addition to the P2P deals covered below, on the show we also talked about some of my favorite financing startups ( Wonga in the UK run by Errol Damelin , who is a superstar) and Affordit.com run by serial (and I mean serial!) 5.0mm in Series B.

Venture Capital 265

Venture Capital Social Network Angel Investor Chad 265

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 1, 2010

“The Series Seed Documents are a standardized set of documents that can be quickly and easily deployed for a seed investment: to help get a company financed properly, legally, quickly, and intelligently.&#. It also scales back the right of first refusal and jettisons the co-sale right. 4) Term Sheet. Check out the docs here.

Preferred Stock 40

Preferred Stock Term Sheet Redemption Registration Rights 40

The Next Web

JULY 21, 2013

You have an awesome idea and a great co-founder with whom you want to work. This is why vesting is so important. Investing in vesting. In essence, vesting protects founders from each other and aligns incentives so everybody focuses towards a common goal: building a successful company. An example.

Vesting 143

Vesting Founder Chile Equity 143

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

K9 Ventures

JULY 22, 2009

This has several advantages: 1) If you are going to be bringing on co-founders or employees, the fact that the company has already been incorporated, and is official, can have an impact on how the equity split gets portioned out. 5) Incorporating forces you to start maintaining the books (or so I hope!)

Due Diligence 48

Due Diligence Vesting Valuation Cofounder 48

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Up and Running

APRIL 3, 2018

But it was Gary Keller, the co-founder of Keller-Williams Realty, the world’s largest residential real estate firm and the author of the book, “ The One Thing ,” who took it further. The same goes for leadership, sales, finance, and even personal areas such as health or family relationships.

Vesting 85

Vesting Community Small Business Cofounder 85

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

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. If you believe in it – then finance whatever you can yourself. If you’re looking to find / earn a technical co-founder then Andrew’s article is the best read.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Go vest yourself. When a co-founder walks out of a company — as was the case for me — you’ve already been dealt a heavy blow. So, the best way of dealing with this issue is to take a long, long vesting period for all major sweat equity founders. Furthermore, founders become highly emotional about their companies.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

The options typically vest monthly over 1-2 years with 100% single-trigger acceleration and no cliff. Although the advisor is on a vesting schedule, you should expect them to add most of their value up-front—that’s normal. Does this stake need to have vesting schedule? Out of these, only fund raising is critical for us.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Professor VC

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Co-founder Dustin Moscovitz is referred to as a programmer, but he is actually an operations guy. Several weeks after Zuckerberg and the team move to Palo Alto for the summer, co-founder Eduardo Saverin finally pays a visit. Also, be sure to include vesting for all founders. October 18, 2010 2:41 PM.

Social Network 28

Social Network Networking Software Review San Jose 28

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

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.&# Third, if you sell the company before the Series B, all un-issued and un-vested options will be cancelled. Do you mean the shares go to the founders?

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

” “Mark has a vested interest in talking down valuations of startups.” Why Financing in Falling Markets is So Damn Difficult. Many founders don’t understand why inside rounds are so difficult. Because we know in tough times we have to count on our co-investors to be good actors. And so it goes.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150