View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder.

Equity 315

Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. During that time one of the founders had mentioned that for the initial agreed time (3 months, equivalent dollars could be translated to 2% of equity but no agreement was reached at that time). Don’t put yourself in this situation.

CTO 167

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 167

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Female Founder Office Hours gives founders the mentorship and the role models to see that it is in not only possible but also to have a plan to make it a reality.

Founder 256

Founder San Francisco Deal Flow Los Angeles 256

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. During that time one of the founders had mentioned that for the initial agreed time (3 months, equivalent dollars could be translated to 2% of equity but no agreement was reached at that time). Don’t put yourself in this situation.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 150

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 255

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder. But not all co-founders are equal in terms of title, ownership, responsibilities, and so forth. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

If you track the venture capital industry it would be hard to miss the conversation going on this week over AngelList “Syndicates.” But as with many people who have a vested interest in fast rounds being assembled, they don’t quite get why it is so important that VCs actually take their time. founder fighting.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 23, 2013

No, it’s not always easy when emotions are running high, but a ‘weak’ response can often stabilize a harsh conversation and prevent damage to the underlying relationship. Try to stay serious and focused and keep the conversation as brief as possible. Problems in the Now category require an immediate, solution-based conversation.

Turkey 145

Turkey Vesting Conversion Leadership 145

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Stock options are issued to employees usually through an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) and include what is called a “vesting period.” The vesting period, often three or four years, frees up a percentage of the options for the employee to purchase the longer they stay at the company. Restricted stock: . When cash flow is poor.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

While he kept bringing the conversation back to their big valuation I tried to steer the conversation back to how they were going to deal with: training the influx of new hires – in both culture and job specific tasks. They had doubled headcount from 100 to 200 in the last year and were planning to double again.) the company had.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

A Strong Pool of Tech Founders – Stating the obvious. I’ve had this conversation with several communities such as in San Diego where I believe there are way more qualified and talented engineers than available local capital to support them. And they have a vested interest in this success. Here are mine: 1.

Community 378

Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Turns out everybody likes to produce content and take part in the “conversation.&# Massive uptake of user-generated content including blogs (e.g. Turns out this conversation is pretty important and what many people want to do. The Founder & CEO of Ad.ly Image courtesy of Bernhardt Haussner. is Sean Rad.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Advertising Early Stage Internet 286

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Here is some of our conversation. A business idea that might sound simple in conversation can transform into a multitentacled hydra when you actually map out the variables and pieces involved. Chipotle’s founder, chef Steve Ells, originally wanted to launch a high-class, fine-dining restaurant.

San Francisco 242

San Francisco Semantic Denver Vesting 242

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 24, 2014

The vast majority of my future savings was (a) not vested yet and (b) tied to hope for future stock grants I’d earn. It’s for reasons like these that I support getting startup founders some liquidity during their company’s first few years, perhaps as early as Series A financing when appropriate.

Founder 108

Founder San Francisco Liquidity Event LP 108

OnlyOnce

APRIL 27, 2021

Here are four tough conversations you may have to have along the way, with some suggestions on how to navigate them. All of these conversations need to come with a point of view of why independence and diversity matters to your company, a lot of empathy, and appreciation for the value the person brings to the table.

Vesting 48

Vesting Cofounder Startup Term Sheet 48

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

These are really good founders and I think this is an interesting space.” Further, when additional people kept mentioning Airbnb to me and praising the founders, I should have asked myself how a smart, capable person would refine the idea.). Those two minutes showed me that Airbnb’s founders wanted to play in the big leagues.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2022

In these moments there tends to be a lot of content to help CEOs and founders manage through a downturn, but not as much for those team members impacted. Obviously this can be a bit tricky but in small companies when you have kind founders and you’ve been a great team member, it’s ok to ask. Extend Your Stock Option Exercise Period.

Stock Options 94

Stock Options Vesting Stock Valuation 94

Hippoland

APRIL 10, 2016

Dear elizy : I started a company in school with two co-founders. First off, whatever you decide, you should implement vesting. Standard vesting practices in the Silicon Valley at this time of writing are 4 year vesting with a 1 year cliff. Let’s call them Ada and Bob. 15% would be incredibly generous!

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Cap Table Equity Vesting 48

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

As Kevin Hillstrom (founder of Mine That Data) told the story… Kevin Hillstrom: “A few weeks ago, I was going over the results of an A/B test with a client. The individual who had executed the test had a vested interested in making sure that ‘A’ was the winner. As she said, this changed the whole conversation.

Vesting 48

Vesting Analytics Conversion Revenue 48

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2018

Deep breath] There are five conversations about money I’ve had with zero to a handful of people in private that I’ve been wanting to write about. When I hear “just start a company, you have nothing to lose” know it won’t ring as true to the realities many founders come from and what they need to overcome.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley San Francisco Vesting .Net 195

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 30, 2022

5:26] Typeform really seems like more of a conversation in comparison to a regular form– how often do you fight the idea that people perceive it as ‘just a form where they only need the data’? [7:55] And it was really the founder, our founder David, and he, it was really about, there has to be this better way, right?

Marketing 75

Marketing Differentiation B2C PR 75

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

I with every entrepreneur would forward that article to their favorite journalist so we could stop having this conversation of “yeah, but company so-and-so isn’t profitable!” And revisit my point about whether you are the archetypal founder who will get tons of money thrust upon you. Your VC is right.

Burn Rate 412

Burn Rate Dilution Revenue Valuation 412

View from Seed

APRIL 11, 2016

With texting and SMS and chat, for instance, there’s less vested interest in the conversation and how the other person feels. At a past firm, I saw a founder who was 10 years too early thinking about the UI in the car, too, so this is not an entirely new discussion. It can invite a lot of bad behavior.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Technology Audio Startup 120

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Set any vesting schedules and expiration dates on roughly similar terms, if for no other reason just so you can track all of them correctly. Kalanick, former investor BFF turned highly disappointed by founder behavior. Usually the founders duke it out among themselves as to titles and responsibilities and relative shareholdings.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Austin Startup

MARCH 2, 2020

They were all wearing the requisite tech uniform of button-down shirts with vests, discussing their strategy for the South by Southwest conference. To prepare for the SXSW conference, I flew in from California and our founder Takahito Iguchi flew in from Japan to meet in Austin, TX.

Austin 69

Austin Vesting Japan Social Media 69

www.seriesseed.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. This is all built into a typical founder stock purchase agreement. There are some Vesting terms for founders in the term sheet but I can't find them in the others documents too. TrackBack URL for this entry: [link]. Thanks in advance!

Finance 40

Finance Term Sheet Vesting LLC 40

Eric Friedman

JANUARY 23, 2022

Running accelerator programs, investing in startups, and working directly with founders is exactly what I want to be doing with my time. The best part is that I have had countless follow up conversations and DMs getting to know founders. I love to look at founder calendars to calibrate how important hiring is to them.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Equity .Net Vesting 78

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

I know how to structure around that to protect the founders from getting screwed on a multiple liquidation preference. But most VCs don’t bother so many convertible note founders get screwed and never know it until they sell their companies. These are all real conversations. I see that all the time. My colleague: Whoa.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

The signs to me are all too obvious from our conversations. This cheerleading often comes from those with vested interests, rather than from successful entrepreneurs who have successfully exited businesses and are looking to encourage the next generation. It is not a victimless pursuit for all and sundry.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 19, 2015

They interweave off-stage lives and conversations with amazing musical performances and they both have amazing editing and cinematography. I spend a ton of time with founders discussing personal issues such founder fighting, the fear of failure, the rejection of investors as well as dealing with real failure and figuring out the aftermath.

Houston 150

Houston Vesting Founder Capital Call 150

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 17, 2010

6) Initial Founders Issuance: 8,000,000 Shares. (7) 7) Founders Equity Split: Depends on the Team, But Quickly and After the Awkward & Difficult Conversations. (8) 8) Vest Founders Shares?: 9) Vesting Schedule for Founders Shares: 4 years with a One Year Cliff. (10) Hell Yes. (9)

Accredited Investor 112

Accredited Investor Delaware NDA Vesting 112

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 17, 2010

6) Initial Founders Issuance: 8,000,000 Shares. (7) 7) Founders Equity Split: Depends on the Team, But Quickly and After the Awkward & Difficult Conversations. (8) 8) Vest Founders Shares?: 9) Vesting Schedule for Founders Shares: 4 years with a One Year Cliff. (10) Hell Yes. (9)

Accredited Investor 112

Accredited Investor Delaware NDA Vesting 112

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. by February 2006).

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

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

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 16, 2018

On the other hand, some founders *literally* aren't fundraising. Given that so much of the bet at these early stages, even at the Series A comes down more to "Do I believe what this founder believes?" A lot of founders worry about information sharing. So, how could you say you aren't fundraising?

Due Diligence 74

Due Diligence Early Stage Term Sheet Vesting 74

Growthink Blog

MARCH 15, 2017

I am very excited to have Mr. Aravinda Korala , Founder and Chief Executive Officer of KAL Software , join us for the March edition of our Growthink Innovators video conference series. A Conversation Not to be Missed! Who is This For?

Software 48

Software Vesting China Video 48

Start Up Blog

APRIL 28, 2011

Geolocating is being used as tool for us as a collective to “assemble” so we can collaborate and take back control of our destiny and conversations. The art of conversation is not being lost…. Sure language has iterated, been redefined, shortened, coded… but the conversations are real and the more meaning and ideas are being exchanged.

Moldova 91

Moldova Internet Australia Libya 91