Early Stage Hiring Matching Pre-Money Valuation 
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 22, 2010
I couldn’t understand why they wanted so many options until a friend pointed out that this just lowered their “true&# pre-money valuation (they also asked for some sharp elbowed terms in the deal). So they agreed to match True’s term sheet. I turned them down. They were nonplussed. No gotchas.
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 30, 2015
Toss in a few acqui-hires in the $6-8mm post seed. So, if that was the case, and the market was competitive, why wouldn't each VC be bidding up a round up until the point where they could get the return that matches their own cost of capital? I assumed the following: Seeds are done as a $1mm round on a pre-money valuation of $5mm.
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www.paulgraham.com
OCTOBER 23, 2010
They all use the same simple-minded model.They seem to have approached the problem by thinking about how todo database matches instead of how dating works in the real world.An Andyet theres a lot of money at stake. One of the best tricks I learned during our startup was a rule for deciding who to hire. Thereis no rational way.
This is going to be BIG.
SEPTEMBER 7, 2012
So, the idea that it's a good or bad idea to follow on, or to play in certain stages versus others--honestly, it's a lot of marketing hype and anecdotal stories that really don't play out across the law of large numbers. Some of this thinking is also driven by folks who aren't well connected to the rest of the later stage venture community.
www.currentlyobsessed.com
MAY 28, 2010
I unexpectedly found that it was more helpful to think about the company valuation as an output variable in the fund-raising equation. It hardly deserves any attention at all in the early stages. For some closing thoughts, I’ll just add that: Valuation tends to be too much of a focus for most early stage companies.
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