The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

Often difficult to get, the first engineer sets the tone for the rest of the development team. Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted. All of the estimates displayed above are figures prior to any dilution. As stated earlier, investors will dilute ownership upon nearly every round of financing.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2017

Thus every serious investor reserves a certain amount of his investment capital for follow-on rounds, which allows them to stay to course to success, even with dilution. Investing can be satisfying, if not lucrative, for the rest of us, for keeping up with technology, as a give-back to entrepreneurs, and building a legacy.

Angel Investor 190

Angel Investor Accredited Investor IRR Angel Groups 190

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 18, 2013

It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. There is a big gap between people who love to try new technologies, and the rest of us, who tend to be much more “technophobic.” Product development chasm.

Entrepreneur 252

Entrepreneur Marketing Technical Review Dilution 252

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2021

For the rest of us, I’ve accumulated the following additional practical strategies for surviving the scale-up challenges, and making your business profitable and sustainable: Enlist an experienced advisor to project real costs. Build your plan around resources you know. Start networking for funding before the crisis.

Dilution 404

Dilution Incubator Bootstrapping Government 404

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 9, 2014

Thus every serious investor reserves a certain amount of his investment capital for follow-on rounds, which allows them to stay to course to success, even with dilution. Investing can be satisfying, if not lucrative, for the rest of us, for keeping up with technology, as a give-back to entrepreneurs, and building a legacy.

Angel Investor 278

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor IRR 278

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2012

It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. There is a big gap between people who love to try new technologies, and the rest of us, who tend to be much more “technophobic.” Product development chasm.

Startup 254

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 254

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

While founders had more stock than the other employees, they had the same type of stock options as the rest of the employees, and they only made money when everyone else did (though a lot more of it.) While founders in the 20 th century had more stock than the rest of their employees, they had the same type of stock options.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2022

Overcoming execution obstacles is combating dilution, not compromising, for these innovators. Most of the rest of us are the reverse; realistic about the vision and romantic about execution. They seek smart people, who openly express their doubts, and then collaborate to overcome them. They face them head on, handle them and move on.

Marketing 313

Marketing Dilution Social Network Government 313

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 11, 2022

That approach may work for an entrepreneur who just sold a successful business for a huge profit, but it doesn’t work for the rest of us who are not proven successes yet, or don’t even have a business yet. Naïve expectations on funding terms and process. Dysfunctional or non-functional team members.

Due Diligence 271

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Preferred Stock 271

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. For the rest of us, a bit more practice before jumping feels like a better bet. I agree with Robert E.

Entrepreneur 373

Entrepreneur Chad Incubator Dilution 373

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2011

It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. There is a big gap between people who love to try new technologies, and the rest of us, who tend to be much more “technophobic.” Product development chasm.

Marketing 238

Marketing Entrepreneur Technical Review Dilution 238

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 26, 2019

Find and focus on one reliable distribution mechanism before diluting your time diversifying. You still have to get the first customers, and most of the rest, yourself. And by remembering confirmatory evidence while conveniently forgetting or explaining away the rest, even though “the rest” is where the real learnings reside.

Restful 202

Restful Founder Revenue Acquisition 202

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 27, 2010

It takes focus to resist adding a long list of features that seem to make the opportunity larger, but dilute to focus of both you and potential customers. There is a big gap between people who love to try new technologies, and the rest of us, who tend to be much more “technophobic.” Product development chasm.

Startup 227

Startup Technical Review Dilution Early Stage 227

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Too many entrepreneurs focus on dilution. But over-optimizing for dilution is a bad attribute relative to focusing on creating a big & winning company. Think YouTube vs. the rest. Bill thinks that most companies your success is usually binary. Bill’s a huge believer in MVP.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2015

Thus every serious investor reserves a certain amount of his investment capital for follow-on rounds, which allows them to stay to course to success, even with dilution. Investing can be satisfying, if not lucrative, for the rest of us, for keeping up with technology, as a give-back to entrepreneurs, and building a legacy.

Angel Investor 120

Angel Investor Angel Groups Accredited Investor IRR 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 14, 2020

That approach may work for an entrepreneur who just sold a successful business for a huge profit, but it doesn’t work for the rest of us who are not proven successes yet, or don’t even have a business yet. Naïve expectations on funding terms and process. Dysfunctional or non-functional team members.

Due Diligence 308

Due Diligence Intellectual Property Preferred Stock Seed Stage 308

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

You can read the rest of the posts in the series by clicking here *. Plus, any other non-standard items here should be called out, too, like non-dilutive grants, as applicable. *This post is part of our “pitch deck” series where we dissect the seed stage pitch deck and discuss the ideal flow for a pitch.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

You should seek to get people who are respected by others in your field and who will therefore make it easier to raise the rest of your angel round.&#. These are the people who make the early commitment to you to fund your round before having any social proof.

Finance 286

Finance Term Sheet Technical Review Warrant 286

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 28, 2018

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. For the rest of us, a bit more practice before jumping feels like a better bet. I agree with Robert E.

Chad 242

Chad Incubator Startup Dilution 242

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 27, 2011

You get dilution sensitive and you start optimizing on price of a financing deal, versus finding the right partners or raising enough money to grow. The rest of success is having the help and being well positioned for uncharted territory to make sure you keep going at the same pace.

Dilution 104

Dilution Equity Hiring Partner 104

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2014

Stock dilution control. While most employees would see their vesting rest when the “Series A” round closes, a Founder might retain some percent of their shares. Everyone wants to minimize dilution of shares, so this special clause is common.

Stock 256

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2013

Stock dilution control. While most employees would see their vesting rest when the “Series A” round closes, a founder might retain some percent of their shares. Everyone wants to minimize dilution of shares, so this special clause is common.

Vesting 245

Vesting Common Stock Stock Founder Vesting 245

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 19, 2019

Overcoming execution obstacles is combating dilution, not compromising, for these innovators. Most of the rest of us are the reverse; realistic about the vision and romantic about execution. They seek smart people, who openly express their doubts, and then collaborate to overcome them. They face them head on, handle them and move on.

Dilution 137

Dilution Social Network Government Restful 137

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 15, 2013

Most recently, the Netflix API team, which used to provide traditional REST APIs to the Netflix UI teams, is now providing content distribution platforms that enable data to be pushed from our AWS backend systems to the devices in people’s homes and pockets. More changes have since been made with the API.

API 135

API Audience Dividend Programming 135

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Seed investors are being compensated for the risk because later-stage investors are paying higher prices, and diluting early-stage investors less. The key takeaway is that it seems like the top of the pack is moving further away from the rest, and the power law is increasing.

Valuation 319

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 319

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

In India, the leading firms are slightly more concentrated with Sequoia India , Accel Partners , and Nexus Venture Partners being a cut above the rest. The rest of Asia is still developing with far more angel and early-stage investors than mid-to-later stage folks. Finally, don’t over-optimize on valuation.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Seed investors are being compensated for the risk because later-stage investors are paying higher prices, and diluting early-stage investors less. The key takeaway is that it seems like the top of the pack is moving further away from the rest, and the power law is increasing.

Valuation 295

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Distribution Early Stage 295

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 15, 2014

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. For the rest of us, a bit more practice before jumping feels like a better bet. I agree with Robert E.

Chad 279

Chad Incubator Dilution LLC 279

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

So having a huge celeb who takes 10% of your company is – well – taking 10% dilution for 0% benefit. And now that leaves 95% of the rest of you. The rest will sort itself out. But customers will come to your website, realize your product isn’t amazing and will leave.

Startup 321

Startup Equity Warrant Dilution 321

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

You should seek to get people who are respected by others in your field and who will therefore make it easier to raise the rest of your angel round. I’d far rather dilute 10% early and get some investor traction than to wither for another 3-6 months trying to get my seed round together.

Silicon Valley 293

Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Overcoming execution obstacles is combating dilution, not compromising, for these innovators. Most of the rest of us are the reverse; realistic about the vision and romantic about execution. They seek smart people, who openly express their doubts, and then collaborate to overcome them. They face them head on, handle them and move on.

Dilution 264

Dilution Social Network Government Restful 264

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

The rest of this post series deals with the reasons why VC froze up in the first place, why investments have heated up recently and why the future of VC funding at the current pace is not certain. They should heed the age old advice that raising slightly more money while you can is always better than trying to optimize future valuations.

Burn Rate 263

Burn Rate Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Private Equity 263

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

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. You can easily take from it whatever makes sense for your business, and leave the rest. On the minus side, that has made it a wee bit hard to understand.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Make sure you focus your design efforts on this area, and delegate or cut time spent on all the rest. Also you need to make sure that highly skilled key people are not diluted by unfulfilling routine work. Empower the team to ensure your core function is fulfilled.

Advisory Board 152

Advisory Board Non-Compete Dilution .Net 152

Gust

MARCH 16, 2014

Stock dilution control. While most employees would see their vesting rest when the “Series A” round closes, a Founder might retain some percent of their shares. Everyone wants to minimize dilution of shares, so this special clause is common.

Stock 175

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 175

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 10, 2017

Overcoming execution obstacles is combating dilution, not compromising, for these innovators. Most of the rest of us are the reverse; realistic about the vision and romantic about execution. They seek smart people, who openly express their doubts, and then collaborate to overcome them. They face them head on, handle them and move on.

Dilution 132

Dilution Social Network Government Restful 132

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 13, 2011

And if you’re one of these brave souls — pouring your blood, sweat, and tears into running your own business — there’s no time for rest. They end up trying to do too much for too many, which dilutes their focus and often the quality of their product or service. The problem is that too many entrepreneurs never learn to say ‘NO!’

Indianapolis 219

Indianapolis Minneapolis Kentucky Virginia 219