Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. And a few teams of super talented, educated and bright entrepreneurs make a few mill. Let’s assume an early-stage company around for 2 years with limited traction.

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Some quick VC math : If a VC invests in ten early stage startups, on average, five will fail, three will return capital, and one or two will be “winners” and make most of the money for the VC fund. As part of the deal you signed with your investors was a term specifying the Liquidation Preference.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

Berkonomics

MAY 22, 2014

In most cases, those entrepreneurs choosing to raise capital using PPMs retain specialists (many of whom are lawyers) to write their PPMs – a rather expensive undertaking. Unfortunately, upon completion of the PPM, the first thing that entrepreneurs tend to do is sell shares to friends, family, friends of friends and other acquaintances.

Early Stage 79

Early Stage Accredited Investor SEC Private Placement 79

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly. A standard entrepreneur retort I heard back then (2008-09) was “I don’t know what my company is worth now.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2018

As an angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and assume no strings attached. If the entrepreneur wants total control of their own venture, with no one looking over their shoulder, they should work within the limits of their own resources, a process called bootstrapping.

Term Sheet 140

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Portfolio 140

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2014

As an Angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and then disappear into the sunset. Finally, entrepreneurs should never forget that investors really believe that they are there to help (not like “I''m from the IRS and I''m here to help”).

Term Sheet 237

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Startup 237

Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

My general opinion is that anything that makes the financing process faster and easier or otherwise educates entrepreneurs is a good thing. (A In addition, I think that a “peace treaty&# between early-stage investors and startup companies on standard terms (at least at a term sheet level) is a step in the right direction.

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

K9 Ventures

JUNE 5, 2015

I still wanted K9 to be the first institutional money in a company and work with “frighteningly early-stage” companies. Your early stage investment portfolio may no longer really be early stage. Over the next few months, I could see more and more signals that this shift was really happening.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Venture Capital Early Stage Valuation 48

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Me: Raising convertible notes as a seed round is one of the biggest disservices our industry has done to entrepreneurs since 2001-2003 when there were “full ratchets” and “multiple liquidation preferences” – the most hostile terms anybody found in term sheets 10 years ago. But how do I offer cheaper prices to early investors?”

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 16, 2015

As an angel investor to startups, I’m still surprised to find entrepreneurs who expect investors to give them money, and assume no strings attached. If the entrepreneur wants total control of their own venture, with no one looking over their shoulder, they should work within the limits of their own resources, a process called bootstrapping.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Advisory Board Liquidation Preference Angel Investor 120

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Please see later version of this post on May 16, 2010 Entrepreneurs are often not experts in the area of term-sheet negotiations and all of the surrounding issues.   Investors sometimes “present” the terms they’d like and expect the entrepreneurs to react. Term-sheets and Valuations: Thinking about Negotiations.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

These entrepreneurs want to maintain two major options: 1) To raise VC later (or not), and/or. 2) To sell their businesses when they want – early, mid term, or never.” . When you raise early stage VC, you can’t sell early because the VCs won’t agree to it. Works for early-stage companies.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 2, 2015

The other day, Mark Suster wrote a critically important post titled One Simple Paragraph Every Entrepreneur Should Add to Their Convertible Notes. As an angel investor, I have never asked for a liquidation preference on conversion that is greater than the dollars I’ve invested. Go read it – I’ll wait.

Liquidation Preference 70

Liquidation Preference Cap Table Angel Investor Post-Money Valuation 70

Altgate

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Raising Capital: 5 Reasons Convertible Debt Sucks HOT The Collapse of the VC Ecosystem & What It Will Look Like Post Recovery 10 Tips On Negotiating With VCs Dating…er…Fundraising Etiquette The Science & Art of Term Sheet Negotiation HOT How Liquidation Preferences Work HOT How Much Money Should I Raise?

Term Sheet 39

Term Sheet Technical Review Michigan Liquidation Preference 39

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

The Changing Face of Entrepreneurs. The Connected World of Entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur Magazine Blog. Before you agree to take equity in lieu of cash, you need to understand that any individual early stage start-up company equity is most likely going to be worthless. immigrant entrepreneurs. OReilly Radar.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

This is probably why investors’ case for a company to sell early f ocuses exclusively on the founder : in most early-stage acquisitions, the liquidation preferences and deal-sweeteners only work for investors and founders. There is no liquidation preference, severance payment or earn out.

Liquidation Preference 63

Liquidation Preference Founder Option Pool Acquisition 63

Professor VC

APRIL 1, 2010

was part of a Dow Jones VentureWire webinar last week titled Negotiating An Angel Deal: What Angels, Entrepreneurs & VCs Need to Know. I prefer the traditional face to face where you can interact with the other panelists and audience, but was the first panel I did wearing my favorite flannel penguin pajamas. Well, not exactly.I

Term Sheet 32

Term Sheet Angel Investor San Jose Venture Capital 32

VC Adventure

AUGUST 30, 2010

I think the answer to these questions are that 1) it’s not at all clear that this trend is as definitive as Graham suggests; 2) it’s a mixed bag for entrepreneurs (more positive in the short run, potentially negative in the long term); and 3) it’s clearly not a positive trend for early-stage investors.

Angel Investor 103

Angel Investor Early Stage Equity Valuation 103

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 2, 2009

A friend of mine is a serial entrepreneur and is running a high-profile, early stage company in NorCal. We exchanged ideas when I was an entrepreneur along side him in NorCal in 05-07 and my point-of-view on founder / VC relationships hasn’t shifted even 1% since I went to the dark side. I believe this is wrong.

Founder 329

Founder Liquidation Preference Term Sheet Participating Preferred 329

K9 Ventures

MARCH 23, 2011

Before the era of capped notes, entrepreneurs preferred to do notes because the note essentially deferred the valuation of the company. It is in essence equivalent to being a Liquidation Preference that is typically seen in a preferred equity financing. Where are you going? Is it in the right direction?

Pre-Money Valuation 132

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Equity Liquidation Preference 132

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

But as an early stage startup, accountability is so important. As a bootstrapper, you have nobody above you on the cap table (note: investors sit above you in their liquidation preference), so it’s your way or the highway. More respect from other entrepreneurs. Nobody can tell you what to do.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

Altgate

MARCH 17, 2009

Raising Capital: 5 Reasons Convertible Debt Sucks HOT The Collapse of the VC Ecosystem & What It Will Look Like Post Recovery NEW 10 Tips On Negotiating With VCs NEW Dating…er…Fundraising Etiquette The Science & Art of Term Sheet Negotiation HOT How Liquidation Preferences Work HOT How Much Money Should I Raise?

Term Sheet 28

Term Sheet Due Diligence Liquidation Preference Dividend 28

Gust

MAY 24, 2012

Yet I’m skeptical that a widespread shift will occur anytime soon, and for reasons discussed below, as much as I admire and advocate for talented entrepreneurs, I believe it would be a losing proposition for nearly all involved.

IPO 159

IPO Equity Common Stock Stock 159

abovethecrowd.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

Buying into such a notion is dangerous – dangerous for the entrepreneur and dangerous for the investor. As a simple example, many investors and entrepreneurs do not realize that coupon or discount use is a contra-revenue event when it comes to revenue recognition. You must subtract it from your top-line revenue.

IPO 40

IPO Liquidation Preference Valuation Technical Review 40

Austin Startup

AUGUST 1, 2017

TL;DR: In a market that has historically idolized huge, splashy financings and exits, an increasing number of entrepreneurs are realizing that everyone else’s definition of success — particularly among certain large VCs — isn’t necessarily aligned with their own. Most individual VCs can only support about 7–10 companies at a time.

Liquidation Preference 48

Liquidation Preference Common Stock Valuation Silicon Valley 48

dondodge.typepad.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

Entrepreneurs face some pretty tough questions at a very early stage. How much equity should I grant to early employees? Both the entrepreneur and the investor have much higher expectations than just "even money" on their bet. Dont worry about giving up too much equity at an early stage.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Dilution Valuation 40

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

But instead of adding it on to the note or doing an equity round with a price, which could still be an early stage price but below the cap, they make the argument that since the company couldn’t raise a round, the company is worthless. So they recapitalize the company. Sure – it happens.

Recapitalization 70

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

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Many modern entrepreneurs have limited exposure to the notion of failure or layoffs because it has been so long since these things were common in the industry. By the first quarter of 2016, the late-stage financing market had changed materially. Entrepreneurs/Founders/CEOs. Here is the historic perspective.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Life Beyond Code

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

One Million by One Million is a global initiative that aims to nurture a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars each in annual revenue and beyond by 2020, thereby creating a trillion dollars in global GDP and ten million jobs. SM: In September 2008, when the first Entrepreneur Journeys book was released, D.D.

Programming 116

Programming Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Technical Review 116