Hunter Walker

AUGUST 31, 2023

Some people claim ‘culture and employee engagement’ are luxuries you can focus on in good times but during market downturns they should be subjugated to business KPIs. MN: I think where most people go wrong during times of difficulty is to try and shield their employees from the truth — especially when it can feel scary.

Employee 113

Employee Startup Vertical Leadership 113

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup. One more key employee or one more investor will probably not turn the situation around. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary.

Technical Review 436

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup. One more key employee or one more investor will probably not turn the situation around. Calculate employee stock option values and vesting times, as well as salary.

Sweat Equity 207

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 207

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1 So what does an early-stage company do to avoid the doom and gloom plaguing the world of startups? There are startups out there that are valued at a billion dollars, but because of employee salaries, assets, etc. That includes us.

Early Stage 113

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 113

Up and Running

OCTOBER 1, 2019

It might seem easier to put off thinking about your first essential new hires. Try to do it all and you’ll spend a lot of time learning new skills (that you’ll eventually hire for) when you should be focusing on growing your business. Hire someone who understands Generation Z (or your target demographic). A marketing maven.

Hiring 77

Hiring Technical Review Small Business Forecast 77

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2020

For early-stage startups, the goodwill component can easily exceed the size of all the financial elements together, or can just as easily mark a company with good financials as not investable. In the investment community, these leadership elements are often called “goodwill.” Performance accountability processes.

Valuation 311

Valuation Technical Review Due Diligence Leadership 311

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2020

Personal assistants are often hired to prepare decisions and information for managers and take care of miscellaneous tasks for busy executives and CEOs — who all earn higher incomes. Alternatively, individual VA contractors can be hired for a monthly salary, or workers for short gigs can be found via Fiverr or TaskRabbit.

Artificial Inteligence 214

Artificial Inteligence Mali Management Technical Review 214

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2020

In addition to being the startup entrepreneur, there are other key roles where Boomers can be a force in driving successful startups, in concert with leaders from Gen-X and Gen-Y: Early-stage angel investors. Often a little gray hair gives added credibility to their efforts, and provides a role model for other support roles.

Advisory Board 312

Advisory Board Startup Dividend Angel Investor 312

Up and Running

MAY 9, 2017

Here at Palo Alto Software , we take hiring pretty seriously. I should know—we just wrapped up a lengthy hiring process within the marketing department. After months of searching, dozens of interviews, and sifting through countless resumes, we finally hired a new managing editor for Bplans.

Hiring 105

Hiring Employee Matching Software Review 105

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

I am fond of quoting that about 70% of my investment decision of an early-stage company is the team. But not anal if one founder who shares equity graciously with early employees who are treated as “co-founders” My idea startup team is heaving on tech personnel but also has strong product management.

Cofounder 388

Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 388

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 28, 2020

To begin again, to start anew, to have a fresh, blank slate — the corporate advantages of hiring entry level employees, strong professionals at their career beginnings, seem self-explanatory. In any economy, successful entry-level hiring is a crucial aspect of corporate success. The factors are manifold.

Hiring 264

Hiring Early Stage Non-Compete Salary 264

Up and Running

APRIL 12, 2018

Employees (include salaries and benefits, like insurance and retirement contributions). Clearly, hiring new team members is an expense, and running promotions means increased marketing expenses, and depending on the nature of the special, selling products at a reduced rate. Known expenses. Examples of known expenses include: Rent.

Forecast 77

Forecast Early Stage Software Review Technical Review 77

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate. Seed Stage Compensation What are typical compensation numbers? Quick & Dirty How-To: Employee Stock Option Allocations

CTO Hire 329

CTO Hire Equity Seed Stage Option Pool 329

Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

Employee 48

Employee Seed Stage Startup Equity 48

YoungUpstarts

JULY 18, 2019

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), there is double the number of entrepreneurs with no employees as compared to entrepreneurs who have employees. However, there will be a time that you’ll need to hire at least one employee in most cases. The Background Check. but abroad?

Hiring 127

Hiring Employee Entrepreneur Bankruptcy 127

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

techcrunch.com

AUGUST 12, 2012

Zachary Bogue And Matt Ocko Launch Data Collective, An Early Stage Fund For Big Data Startups. Data Collective has already made 46 investments from its first fund, which it calls “comparable with other seed and early stage funds” (Ocko and Bogue wouldn’t reveal fund size.). Headphones. CrunchBase.

Early Stage 70

Early Stage San Francisco Los Angeles Southern California 70

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Especially in the early days of mobile/iOS engineering, if you hired strong technical talent into your early stage company, you basically created an acquisition outcome floor. Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition. Very different.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

A combination of competition for top talent and an effort to bring employees back to the office drove startups in Israel to throw extravagant parties and all-inclusive retreats abroad. The press took notice, especially since just a few months later startups were laying off employees en-masse to cut costs. Team, product, market.

Founder 187

Founder Startup Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 187

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

The Israeli innovation authority deems the sector suffers from ‘ chronic employee shortage’ The battle for talent has meant that companies had to lure potential employees with billboards, influencer videos, referral schemes, etc. I commented on this to Israel21c in the early days of the tre nd.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Most early stage startups tend to do well in this area because entrepreneurs generally launch their startups believing they have a great product idea. What does this mean for their early stage investors? Weak revenue architecture poses the greatest near-term risk of failure for most early stage startups.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 15, 2022

Being able to hire talented professionals remains a difficult proposition in the current job market, especially when sourcing experienced developers, designers, and project managers. Keep Employees Engaged When on The Bench. The experience of the agency’s initial founders likely dictates early business domains to target.

Incubator 188

Incubator Startup Software Developers Software Development 188

The Startup Magazine

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

In exchange, founders agree to transition their company into a new phase that requires them to start catering to investors’ needs in addition to those of its customers and employees. While the rewards may be a boon to their company in the short term, the consequences of accepting outside funding too early can be debilitating.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Venture Capital Bootstrapping Pre-Money Valuation 85

Up and Running

JULY 28, 2022

Generally, the size is based on the number of employees and annual receipts for a given period. Small Business Administration , an organization is considered to be a small business if their: Firm revenue ranges from $1 million to $40 million Number of employees is between 100 and 1,500. According to the U.S.

Small Business 167

Small Business Intellectual Property Cofounder Software Review 167

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

Organizational debt is all the people/culture compromises made to “just get it done” in the early stages of a startup. While he kept bringing the conversation back to their big valuation I tried to steer the conversation back to how they were going to deal with: training the influx of new hires – in both culture and job specific tasks.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

As a startup in this phase you often raise capital, get press, hire staff and everything feels possible. As an early-stage VC I love this phase. I always push companies to hire “an operationally focused CFO” during this phase because in order to systematize you need somebody who brings economic rigor to decision making.

Operations 286

Operations New York City Technical Review Startup 286

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2011

Every potential early-stage Venture Capitalist should take a year and do it before he or she makes partner. Early-stage Venture Capital firms grow their partnerships in different ways, some hire: partners from other firms. Today, you can start a web/mobile/cloud startup for $500,000 and have money left over.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Early Stage Technical Review Startup 332

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Hiring your first employee is a bit of a rite of passage for start-ups. Many fledgling businesses consist of one person and their laptop, crammed into a small office space, and when you start thinking about hiring others to help out, it all becomes a lot more real. Learn about OSHA compliance.

Hiring 113

Hiring Employee Early Stage Salary 113

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 4, 2020

But, just an importantly, they’re also in business to put food on the table for their families and employees. With people counting on them—their families and their employees’ families—they have to carry on. Our families — and the families of the employees we eventually hire—come first. Does your family come first?

Entrepreneur 205

Entrepreneur Venture Capital Silicon Valley Bandwidth 205

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2019

Things like slips and falls, vehicle accidents, heavy machinery malfunctions, and even repetitive motion injuries in an office environment can leave employees unable to work. Hire the Right People. Make sure you take hiring seriously and don’t make foolish mistakes that put your company on unstable footing.

Burn Rate 176

Burn Rate Startup Lean Early Stage 176

VC Cafe

JUNE 10, 2022

Until now, early stage startups were relatively unaffected. These changes come as Meta is dealing with slowed revenue growth , which has led the company to freeze hiring in some divisions. As layoffs in Israeli startups ramp up, a new resource for affected employees.

Valuation 151

Valuation Marketing Venture Capital 151

Up and Running

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Technology helps you stay accountable for some of the difficult decisions you’ll need to make, so it’s worth it to prioritize that expense early. Weigh hiring an employee versus implementing software. Price out the cost of tools (and estimated impacts) to compare against hiring someone new. Tough decisions are persistent.

Entrepreneur 149

Entrepreneur Sales Cycle Early Stage Texas 149

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 11, 2022

Seed Stage Startups Don’t Hire Fulltime For These Roles, And Certainly Not Senior Hires. These roles typically become FTE in your growth from 10 to 50 employees, not 1–10. Hiring Marketing or Comms Consultants/Agencies At Seed Is Often a Terrible Idea. It’s just not worth their time.

Seed Stage 102

Seed Stage Cap Table Founder Marketing 102

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If you’re thinking about extending equity to an employee or a vendor (as in the example above), you should know that the topic is multi-faceted. If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different. Finding great employees first. What is equity compensation?

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

It was an amazing gathering of some of the most ambitious early-stage CEO’s looking to make a dent in fields related to healthcare, biology, AI and other transformative fields. A Short Presentation I was invited to do a keynote presentation at the Khosla Ventures CEO Summit this week in Sausalito.

Management 234

Management Startup Dividend Early Stage 234

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. Ventures that are further along and now executing their business model are no longer startups, they are now early-stage companies.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

The Startup Magazine

MAY 22, 2018

At this stage of a company, all employees of the company need to proactively focus on customers and their receptivity to the offering. Early stage. At this stage, the hiring of employees who are customer focused is paramount. New hires will be part-time and will be dedicated to helping customers.

Customer 81

Customer Early Stage Churn Rate Startup 81