SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate. Quick & Dirty How-To: Employee Stock Option Allocations Seed Stage Compensation What are typical compensation numbers?

CTO Hire 329

CTO Hire Equity Seed Stage Option Pool 329

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. The vesting schedule protects each of the co-founders in case one gets hit by a bus or decides to drop the project after a short period of time. As first time entrepreneurs they did not create an employee options pool; we’ll fix that in a little while.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. Paul Graham provides what is roughly the core formula for equity at any point in The Equity Equation : You can use the same formula when giving stock to employees, but it works in the other direction. Wait a second.

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Things like “ participating preferred stock &# in legalese unsurprisingly never actually call out, “hey, this is the participating preferred language.&# We got a3x participating liquidation preference with interest (not participating with a 3x cap, but 3x participating. No option pool shuffle. No gotchas.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted. I’ll take that in singles, please.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

Chris Dixon wrote a blog post about “ The one number you should know about your equity grant “ The one number you should know about your equity grant is the percent of the company you are being granted (in options, shares, whatever – it doesn’t matter – just the % matters). Percent of the outstanding option pool: meaningless.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62