Gust

OCTOBER 17, 2011

The first capital a young company receives usually takes the form of common stock, the same class of shares the founders hold. These “IV drip” financings may reduce risk for investors, but put more pressure on founders. Anti-dilution protection. But some dilution is almost inevitable. Outline multiple tranches.

Term Sheet 158

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Due Diligence Post-Money Valuation 158

Haystack

AUGUST 18, 2019

More and more seed capital has flooded into the market, making the situation for funding seed rounds ~$2M-ish total size more competitive. When more capital is chasing the same set, entry prices go up and returns are likely to go down.

Seed Stage 108

Seed Stage Cap Table Early Stage Malaysia 108

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

In tech startups stock options were here almost from the beginning, first offered to the founders in 1957 at Fairchild Semiconductor , the first chip startup in Silicon Valley. As Venture Capital emerged as an industry in the mid 1970’s, investors in venture-funded startups began to give stock options to all their employees.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

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

Austin Startup

APRIL 28, 2019

Mitch Marchand, founder of Vybe Software, working at Sputnik ATX accelerator in Austin, TX First off, and full disclosure, I operate an accelerator program (Sputnik ATX) and have strong opinions on this subject as a participant in the “helping startups” market. Advice should always be free to founders. OK, enough with disclosures.

Incubator 50

Incubator Equity Programming Cloud 50

View from Seed

NOVEMBER 19, 2015

The following is a real (but anonymized) email to us at NextView where a founder debates the timing of his seed raise: I met with someone today who said I should push to close a seed round before I launch the product. However, to push the right type of thinking about the issue, I typically ask founders three questions: 1.

Seed Capital 120

Seed Capital Seed Stage Dilution Networking 120

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

One recipe for failure (business failure and capital raising failure) is building a lopsided team weighted to one function of the business. 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.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. He wrote: When startups die, the official cause of death is always either running out of money or a critical founder bailing. Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Andrew Montalenti.

Cofounder 155

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011

Not only will this scare-away many sophisticated angel and VC investors, but also the founders will likely find themselves constantly peppered with questions about their company and how things are going; not to mention turning holidays, like Thanksgiving, into stockholders’ meetings. When will I get my first dividend check?”,

Preferred Stock 45

Preferred Stock Angel Investor Entrepreneur Common Stock 45

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Whats is the best way to find a co-founder for your startup? However, one of my co-founders doesn’t seem to be as motivated as the rest of us. As founders invest massive amounts of time into their start-up, how critical is it for them to come out of their “hermit caves” and network? Non of this academic stuff.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

A company raises $1m of seed money from angels in a convertible note with a $6m cap. Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. But in this cycle, I hadn’t seen it in a seed round.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

Rob Go

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

To do that means that you have a large enough fund to write a $3-$5M series A check, which is great, but creates a lot of misalignments that true dedicated seed funds have. Given this definition, we continue to see dedicated seed funds providing strong benefits for founders, including: Minimal signaling risk at the next round of financing.

Seed Stage 55

Seed Stage Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Early Stage 55