Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

I left the meeting and had to attend a 3-hour board meeting where two founders have been fighting and each want the other one fired. But your co-founder had been senior at one of the big enterprise software companies and if I remember correctly American Express had run a big pilot with you. Some were interesting, some weren’t.

Software Review 381

Software Review Churn Rate Due Diligence New York 381

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Quick summary: Be careful not to have too many co-founders. it’s the most expensive dilution you’ll ever face. I don’t think VCs care as much about co-founders & economics as people think. And you need to be careful about giving up control to cofounders as much as VCs. For the wrong reasons.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." The first few people into a startup are on a spectrum of founder vs. early employee. Founders are likely not paid for a long time and have a sizeable equity percentage for early risk and having the concept.

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. But unlike the popular press reporting of this conflict — 80% of the time it is founder-to-founder conflict and not investor-to-founder conflict.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

I raised money and traded equity, but with my venture, I had to make one of the toughest decisions, to build it with some assistance of co-founders. If you are having any issues with cash flow, you always have the option of opting for alternate business finance. Find the right co-founders. Often, this is considered as a mistake.

Cofounder 124

Cofounder Sweat Equity Equity Dilution 124

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

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2017

David is one of the most active angel investors in New York, and also the CEO of Gust , which is an online platform for startup financing used by 500,000 entrepreneurs over the years, and funding over 1800 startups in just the last 12 months. Rose, according to his latest book, “ Angel Investing.” All startups always need more money.

Angel Investor 190

Angel Investor Accredited Investor IRR Angel Groups 190

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is the new book by David Cohen , founder and CEO of TechStars, and Brad Feld , managing director of Foundry Group. Below is his chapter, Avoid Co-Founder Conflict. A perennial favorite is to decide that each founder should own an equal share. Can any of us be fired?

Cofounder 128

Cofounder Founder Equity Dilution 128

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 31, 2020

First, an example of grant-based financing . The company was funded entirely by grants from the National Institute of Health, amounting to millions of non-dilutive dollars in all. No dilution to shareholders or the founders. The post Financing with grants, not equity or debt first appeared on BERKONOMICS.

Equity 62

Equity Finance Dilution Founder 62

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

As Finance Fridays continues, we are introducing the concept of the Cap Table. The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years. 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. Time to update the cap table.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). under $500K).

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As the idea went from innovating on software & systems to launching a company to rolling it out in the field brought on Rahul Gandhi as his co-founder to physically launch the company. Sam & Rahul have worked closely together on “innovate & operate” since the earliest days of MakeSpace. Seriously, this happens.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

In the old days there weren’t many fights about whether angels would take their prorata rights in financing rounds. This might happen because to meet all investors needs they end up selling too much of the company, taking too much dilution and feeling beat up. Thus begins the dance. And there’s always a but.

Technical Review 336

Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2014

David is also the CEO of Gust , which is an online platform for startup financing used by over 50,000 accredited angel investors, 1000 angel groups and venture capital funds, and 250,000 entrepreneurs. It doesn’t seem to matter what the founders’ projections are, or how fast they believe they will turn profitable.

Angel Investor 278

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor IRR 278

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

of our company in exchange for the $300K, and my business partner and I each diluted from 50% ownership down to 33.3% ownership and never dilute. When fundraising for a startup, all investors dilute as additional investors join in on the deal. We were targeting to raise around $3 million in investment capital.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Altgate

DECEMBER 15, 2010

@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← No one wants to tell you your baby is ugly More on Liquidation Preferences → Pre-Money Valuation vs Number of Founders Posted on December 15, 2010 by admin Here’s a chart of the day worth sharing.

Pre-Money Valuation 66

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Cofounder Founder 66

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

They don’t realize that this option would likely be their worst nightmare, since it costs millions for the road show, usually dilutes your equity to a tiny fraction, and takes away all your entrepreneurial control. business entrepreneur exit founder IPO startup' Consider the recent example of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.

IPO 224

IPO Founder Exit Strategy Investment Bankers 224

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2021

A popular myth these days is that finishing college only dilutes your entrepreneurial instincts, and the best of the best, including Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out early to hasten their success. I agree with Robert E. Practical business courses are better than an advanced degree or MBA.

Entrepreneur 373

Entrepreneur Chad Incubator Dilution 373

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

And the loosening of federal monetary policies, particularly in the US, has pushed more dollars into the venture ecosystems at every stage of financing. What Has Changed in Financing? 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.

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Berkonomics

AUGUST 10, 2023

Investor-friendly clauses in agreement There are also clauses in many such investor documents that allow the investor to override the founder and force a sale of the company if a proposed sale is attractive to an investor for liquidity, even if the founder feels that there is much more potential if the business is not sold at the present time.

Liquidity Event 116

Liquidity Event Initial Public Offering Dividend Valuation 116

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 27, 2011

For a more elaborate explanation of the deal, please read my blog post 1M/1M: Alternative Financing For Startups Using A Sales Channel Partner. I have discussed at length why revenue sharing channel deals may serve as perfectly fine alternatives to raising equity (or even complements) because of their non-dilutive nature.

Dilution 114

Dilution Revenue Finance Entrepreneur 114

View from Seed

OCTOBER 28, 2019

But this financing contour description is just a proxy for underlying business metrics. In reality, a pre-seed is “an early round of financing that is designed to help a company achieve certain intermediate milestones PRIOR to the magic combination of strong PMF + meaningful traction.”. A Symptom, Not A Cause.

Seed Stage 247

Seed Stage Finance Dilution Early Stage 247

Austin Startup

JULY 6, 2018

Re: cash, the more “unbundled” types of accelerators (less formalized, less equity) tend to not provide any cash upfront, but also typically “cost” less in equity, often just 1–2% of your fully diluted capitalization. Anti-Dilution. See: Startup Accelerator Anti-Dilution Provisions; The Fine Print. See: Ask the users.

Dilution 48

Dilution Startup Technical Review Equity 48

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

Over the last 10 years, we’ve been in a bull market with considerable froth in late stage financing activity and valuations. These growth rounds may be more dilutive than planned, but will still occur without punitive terms and allow founders, teams, and early investors to emerge with very successful outcomes at the very end.

LP 256

LP IRR Distribution Portfolio 256

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 7, 2017

Employee options pools, typically created at the point of financings, shouldn’t be treated as haggling over dilution, but rather a strategic resource that will help founders build the best team and, by extension, a more valuable company.

Equity 94

Equity Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Founder 94

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

But here is one that I want to focus on in this post: “Can I ask for undiluted stock (non dilution clause)?” I am not even sure what “undiluted stock” is, but safe to say the person (I will call him Exec X) meant stock that his equity would not be dilutable in terms of ownership. Actually, I got many questions.

Dilution 53

Dilution Employee Cap Table Stock 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2015

David is one of the most active angel investors in New York, and also the CEO of Gust , which is an online platform for startup financing used by over 45,000 accredited angel investors, 1000 angel groups and venture capital funds, and 200,000 entrepreneurs. Rose, according to his recent book, “ Angel Investing.” billion collected in 2014.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor IRR 120

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Startups that are backed by professional financial investors almost always have a Board of Directors that consists of some set of founders, investors and sometimes independent directors. These are truly protective even though sometimes founders find them to be an unwelcome level of approval required.

Startup 204

Startup Dilution Government Stock Options 204

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

L to R: Tiara Zolniez (Co-Founder & Sales), Dr. Roshawnna Novellus (Co-Founder & CEO), Alisha Griffey (COO) The Forrest Four-Cast: February 4, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx.

Startup 50

Startup Cofounder Technical Review Equity 50

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

I have interacted with a lot of founders who funded their initial business expenses through credit cards. If you are facing any problem you can always check out this: Business Loan vs. Equity Financing. Point number 1: You must understand that funding is a business transaction between the investors and the startup founders.

Startup 150

Startup Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Seed Stage 150

Genuine VC

JULY 19, 2010

Initial investment in a company is among the first non-founder capital raised. Startups are now able to produce real meaningful early business traction which yields genuine valuation increases, not just a prototype or proof-of-concept which yields merely a ticket to another round of dilutive financing.

Seed Stage 175

Seed Stage Technical Review Dilution Offshore 175

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

I am reminded of this problem every time my firm does a financing where a note went before us but more specifically I was reminded by this great post by Brad Feld to talk about the pre-money vs. post-money conversion issue. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? It’s very simple. Size of my check.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 2, 2017

.” But we also knew that most Fortune 500 M&A transactions aren’t at unicorn levels (actually well sub-$250m), so we advise founders to not over-raise capital until they’re using it to fund profitable growth (or a clear path to profitability). It could lower earnings because of continued investment and share dilution.

Technical Review 116

Technical Review Cap Table Acquisition Startup 116

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. In finance they call it “terminal value” but the truth is the price is as arbitrary at your A round as it is at your seed round. And now I have to explain to team that they’re taking more dilution than they expected if we do a down round.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417