Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Nowhere is the politics more difficult than with co-founders, which is why for years I’ve spoken publicly about “ the co-founder mythology.” ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. She started it with a partner, 50-50.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

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. In many cases, one founder has started earlier and brings an important completed piece of work to the table, and that can have great value. Pre-existing intellectual property.

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

You race back to the office to tell everybody how well it went and you wait for the follow-up call to have a partners’ meeting or talk about term sheets or at least dip into due diligence. This is a very common scenario when entrepreneurs pitch VCs and frankly is a very common scenario when VCs try to raise money from LPs. I remember.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Founder 325

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

When an entrepreneur first incorporates a business, they may find themselves the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. every entrepreneur should incorporate early and file an 83(b) election with the IRS within 30 days of founding the company. Key founder vesting should have no cliff.

Stock 240

Stock .Net Vesting Founder Vesting 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2020

In my work with new startups, I often find people who believe that the terms “ entrepreneur ” and “ inventor ” are interchangeable. In my experience, most successful entrepreneurs have indeed created a new product, but most people who claim to be inventors have a hard time starting a business.

Founder 312

Founder Intellectual Property Dilution Startup 312

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 24, 2017

Foundry Group is best known for our investments in startups, but our vehicle currently investing in other venture funds, Foundry Group Next, is off to what we believe to be a great start and I wanted to share an update about it by talking about our new investment in a fund managed by Founder Collective.

Founder 75

Founder LP Technical Review Seed Stage 75

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2021

When an entrepreneur first incorporates a business, they may find themselves the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. every entrepreneur should incorporate early and file an 83(b) election with the IRS within 30 days of founding the company. Key founder vesting should have no cliff.

Vesting 298

Vesting Dilution Stock Founder Vesting 298

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. If people are funding the business, they should get a premium because at the end of the day, cash funding founders are acting no different than a seed stage investor. Whose idea was it?

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

Now the bad news: some venture capitallists have a bias against startups with an explicit positive social impact, on the grounds that they have a smaller addressable market, and that the founders are not sufficiently focused on creating shareholder wealth. If you think I’ve missed any, please contact me. Aspen Tech Policy Hub.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. In many cases, one founder has started earlier and brings an important completed piece of work to the table, and that can have great value. Pre-existing intellectual property.

Equity 228

Equity Intellectual Property Cofounder CTO Hire 228

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

India has always been renowned as the land of entrepreneurs. A business plan is drawn up to attract investors and partners. At this stage, the founder mainly raises funding from their sources or family and friends. The equity dilution at this nascent stage is on desirable terms; such investing can lead to profitable returns.

Technical Review 143

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 143

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

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Founders. Should founders have anti-dilution rights?

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. is frequently granted ownership significantly less than that of the founders. However, at the very early stage, they are taking as much risk with their future as the founders. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

This is a guest post from Stephano Kim , former co-founder of Web 1.0 success story Blackboard and veteran entrepreneur who’s held several COO and president roles at various startups. Many startup CEOs hire COOs or launch companies with a co-founder carrying the title. When should founders hire one?

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

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. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Bigfoot Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

Picking the right attorney in your startup is as important as picking the right business partner. My business partner and I made many mistakes in our first tech startup, and so many of them were the result of choosing a lawyer who was a terrible fit. My business partner and I were elated. ownership and never dilute.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

People all across the value chain have taken notice including Limited Partners who are the people who invest in VC funds in the first place. Much of this historically didn’t matter to entrepreneurs. ” Entrepreneurs can be caught in the middle. What a second, what about entrepreneurs?

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. I love it when entrepreneurs start a pitch with a “Big Vision” and end it with their how their idea will achieve “World Domination.” Raise too much capital at any given stage and suffer more dilution than is necessary – obviously not ideal.

Valuation 100

Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. years ago and told me, “I just got offered the chance to buy this company because the founder doesn’t want to continue. How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. Me: “Zero dilution.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I covered what I call “the co-founder mythology.&# Either you’re not technical and you think you need a technical co-founder or vice-versa. Conventional wisdom says that you gain far more in working as a team than you lose by diluted by half before you start. Hire your co-founder. Vested over 4 years.

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? From a company milestones perspective, entrepreneurs who take on venture debt are almost always thinking about raising that next round of capital from other institutions. At NextView, for instance, one of our more popular posts centers on atypical seed rounds to know.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read. Brant and Patrick undertook a difficult challenge: to provide a generally accessible introduction to Customer Development, without diluting its impact or dumbing-down its principles.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 16, 2016

By Bryan Miles, CEO and co-founder, Miles Advisory Group, Inc. We witness so many of the subtle gains of our labor – ideas made real, people turned passionate partners and the prospects of inching ever-closer to a long-term future rather than the great likelihood of total business failure. Re-set the vendor and partner paradigm.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Balance Sheet Small Business Administration Technical Review 100

Genuine VC

JULY 19, 2010

I think that the number of players in this devloping class of what I’d call “Micro VCs” will continue to increase over the coming years: the model fits into an opportunity on the capital supply side, as well as more importantly becomes the right product for many entrepreneurs on the demand side. Structural.

Seed Stage 175

Seed Stage Technical Review Dilution Offshore 175

Austin Startup

JULY 6, 2018

Ask the Users Startup Accelerators: Bundled and Unbundled Over the past several years, accelerators have emerged as a powerful filtering and signaling mechanism in early-stage startup ecosystems, allowing high-potential young startups to connect with investors, advisors, and other strategic partners far faster and more efficiently than before.

Dilution 48

Dilution Startup Technical Review Equity 48

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

Some disgruntled younger partners left to go start a new firm in 1965 called Greylock. Some disgruntled younger partners left in the 90s to form what is now Redpoint Ventures (IT team) and Versant Ventures (healthcare team). Big success was Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in which ARD invested about $2.1M

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

They might be ideas they hatch internally (via a Foundry) or a founder who just left SpaceX and raises money to search for an idea. two founders in a garage?—?(HP The most connected and high-potential founders start with wads of cash. And the truth is that several entrepreneurs prefer it this way. HP Style) are dead.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The downside is loss of control and financial dilution.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. Conversely I offered the same deal to another entrepreneur who decided to shop around longer.

Technical Review 301

Technical Review Term Sheet Due Diligence Venture Capital 301

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2014

Even though the class is common stock, Founders can negotiate special vesting and other terms as part of their stock restriction agreement upon venture investment. Here are some typical special terms and considerations for Founder’s stock: Negligible real value. Stock dilution control. Vesting with no cliff.

Stock 256

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 256