Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. Another common “failure to start” situation I see is one where the “idea person” insists that the idea is 90% of the value (and 90% of the equity). Expertise can be marketing, technical, financial, or sales.

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Marketing Sales & Marketing Home Marketing Basics Sales Online Marketing Finding Customers Social Media Branding Social Media Does Your Companys Social Personality Need a Makeover? What is Sweat Equity Worth? Determining how to value sweat equity is key when negotiating with investors and employees. BY Asheesh Advani. |.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Equity 237

Equity Stock Options Advisory Board Stock 237

www.huffingtonpost.com

MAY 10, 2011

Ive occasionally worked with executive recruiters, for example in hiring a CTO for my first company, Eve.com. Size of Opportunity - market size, revenue or usage, exit outcome and their ability to get equity early are all important. Minted.com is both a global design community and stationery retailer.

CTO 43

CTO CTO Hire PHP Cofounder 43

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Have a CTO Advisor Provide Their Guidance & Due Diligence Suggestions on a Large Upcoming Technology Expenditure. Start Exit Planning Your Small Business for Sale to a Strategic or Financial Buyer in the Coming Years. Have an Experienced CFO Advisor Analyze & Immediately Improve Your Financials.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Small Business Hiring 100

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Employee Equity: How Much? The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. And the amount of equity you need to grant to accomplish these hires is also an art and most certainly not a science.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2022

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Stock Options 343

Stock Options Advisory Board Stock Startup 343

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers?

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Sales & Marketing | Wednesdays. SALES & MARKETING. TECHNOLOGY. Should You Share Equity with Consultants? Science and Technology Technology. We had a rough time early on," says Parker, president and chief technology officer of Roving Software Inc. , Finance | Tuesdays. Tools & Research.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

.&# Still, I’ll bet that functionally you divide areas of competence like sales & marketing, product, engineering, biz dev, etc. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#. Dilute your cash, equity or both. and my favorite].

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

David Teten

JUNE 6, 2011

My rough notes follow: Mike Dubno , CIO, Global Markets and Research Technology & Operations, Bank of America. Previously CTO, Goldman Sachs. Panel: Cary Davis , Managing Director, Warburg Pincus, Moderator: Ben Fried, Chief Information Officer, Google, runs in-house technology. 2-18 month sales cycle.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Azure 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2011

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Equity 234

Equity Advisory Board Stock Options Stock 234

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Quite frankly, waiting provides more assurance around employment risk without the commensurate sacrifice in equity comp. In a CTO Salary and Equity trends report by Safire Partners, it finds non-founder equity compensation to settle out below 2 percent. Why not wait until the opportunity to be engineer #10, #20, #100?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

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. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Hire a diversified base of sales reps.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Since we bootstrapped Backblaze, early on we would have months when the company did not have enough cash from sales to buy the additional servers it needed. It’s easier to take that vacation when you know someone will be at the office that will care the way you do and share your goals. Break – you need one at some point.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. You may know how much to pay in cash or equity for your new VP Engineering. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million. Always seek input.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Individual accredited investors in typical angel deals put personal capital at risk for an equity share of growth-oriented, start-up companies. For this round of investment, the angels collectively purchase 20-40% of the equity of the company and are seeking a return on investment of 20-30X in a period of five to eight years.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2017

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Stock 140

Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2013

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Stock Options 224

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 224

The Next Web

JANUARY 27, 2013

Especially because I could have used this time on marketing, sales and customer development, and actually helped our business move forward. Go for a convertible notes/equity and save the legal nightmares for when you actually have proven that you’ve got a credible business model. I found this a real waste of time and energy.

Netherlands 159

Netherlands Technical Review Software Review Cofounder 159

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Stock Options 230

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 230

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

While private equity has a history in the U.S. that dates back over a century , the “boom or bust” period of the 1980s to early 1990s is considered the period that marks the rise in private equity and venture capital funding as we know it today. How did women seeking venture capital funding fare during this time period?

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 29, 2010

In an equity-based compensation structure, optimizing for the company’s success should yield better results for individuals as well. As my Opsware head of sales Mark Cranney used to say, “2% of 0 is 0.”. When we hired the head of worldwide sales for Opsware, using this screen proved to be quite valuable.

CTO Hire 78

CTO Hire Technical Review Leadership Sales 78

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

This person needs to be incredibly skilled in engineering, and should ideally be an experienced CTO. A marketing/sales machine. The next person (most companies forget) is an experienced sales/marketing founder. When it comes to equity, be fair. It helps you keep up the speed.

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Investors: Matrix (Dana Stadler, who was the CTO of PayPal). Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable. 15mm in Series A.

Venture Capital 270

Venture Capital Cofounder Spain San Diego 270

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2015

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Stock Options 120

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 120

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Of course everything could be replicated if a massive juggernaut like Amazon or Google wanted to pour all of their resources into it but I’m talking about technology that is hard to replicate, takes years of know-how and once adopted is significantly valuable. Why does that matter? Some start, some scale, some can do both.

IP 223

IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 1, 2009

CompStudy publishes an annual report of equity and cash compensation that provides compensation data on top management positions and Boards of Directors at private companies in technology and life sciences. For example, below are the 2008 results for average equity granted at time of hire in IT companies: CEO 5.40%.

Stock Options 31

Stock Options CTO Hire Equity 31

VC Cafe

AUGUST 30, 2011

Ad verification startup DoubleVerify has raised a fourth round of $33 million from private equity fund JMI Equity and Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). The company is also planning to open a London office, according to several LinkedIn job ads. According to Ynet , the deal values DoubleVerify at $200 million.

Private Equity 87

Private Equity Valuation Equity Acquisition 87

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2010

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

Stock 144

Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 144

VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2011

Yair Goldfinger’s Dotomi sold to ValueClick for $295 million, of which $162 million are in cash and the rest will be paid in ValueClick equity. Yair Goldfinger, co-founder and CTO of Dotomi and a prominent Israeli angel investor, founded Dotomi back in 2000, following the acquisition of ICQ by AOL.

Angel Investor 87

Angel Investor Chicago Retention Cofounder 87

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. While it’s useful to be able to have a sales forecast and expense budget early on, it’s not something you need until you’ve validated your idea. A few resources you may want to check out include: How to Forecast Your Sales.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

No startup will ever succeed without a persuasive and visionary sales leader. Spencer Fry • Nov 27, 2010 I guess i still need that sales guy. Distribution/sales guy-Has an awesome understanding of the industry and product and can sell the vision and problem you are solving to investors, users, and potential partners. (he

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. Actually, David’s taking even broader roles than I generally do as he’s CEO for at least one startup.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Fractional CTO Technology CTO Hire 170

Up and Running

AUGUST 18, 2021

b) Investors like venture capitalists or private equity funds. If you need a more general selection of job titles to work through, use the following list: CEO CFO CTO Business development Innovation Digital Strategy Management. c) Other FinTech Companies. d) Corporates that aren’t financial services. Who to target.

Search 113

Search Private Equity Naming Conversion 113

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Here’s how the pitch sounds from the engineer’s perspective: ‘For ten whole percent of equity, you will slave away to build a prototype out of my shitty idea, not have any say in the decision-making process…and oh yeah, you could be fired at any point.’ Date for a bit, then split the equity. Learned a lot.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51