View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

Up and Running

OCTOBER 19, 2021

The American job market has become even more competitive amid the pandemic-fueled “Great Resignation” — the number of employees quitting their jobs peaked in April 2021 and has remained high over the past few months. . As a startup looking to hire your dream team, this news can be exciting. Resourcefulness.

Startup 127

Startup Salary Stock Options Employee 127

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment. 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 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment. 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. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

www.drowningamerican.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Next → How we Hire for Sweat Equity (Part 2)… Posted on April 7, 2011 by Travis Biziorek. The first time we hired partners for Kibin was way back in late 2009. I’ve heard people say it’s impossible to hire good developers right now. I want to hire before I have the ability to pay anyone.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Hiring Technical Review 40

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Employee Benefits. Should You Share Equity with Consultants? Back in 1997, Randy Parker was staring at a blank whiteboard, wondering where hed find the money to hire the employees and consultants he needed to build his new product. "We But sharing equity can have pitfalls, too. Financing A Small Business.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Gust

APRIL 9, 2014

Equity dilution works when the same pie is divided among more people. Over time, other people receive pieces of equity in exchange for work (employee stock options), money (seed, angel and venture investors), services (attorneys, directors, etc.).

Dilution 150

Dilution Equity Vesting Stock Options 150

David Teten

AUGUST 1, 2019

Negotiating Employment with a Private Equity Firm – 7 Surprises to Expect. Negotiate Your Equity And Salary With Stock Option Counsel Tips. Here’s How Startup Founders Should Offer Employee Equity. Private company stock option grants: a founder’s guide to who gets what, when.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Equity Due Diligence Portfolio 60

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 17, 2013

I’ve never really understood why the majority of stock option refresh grants are stacked grants mid-way through the granting process. Assume you hire someone and grant them 10,000 options with monthly vesting of four years with a one year cliff. options / month, or 2,500 / year.) Let me give an example.

Stock Options 134

Stock Options Stock Vesting Retention 134

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

Most boards did some level of work to determine the FMV of a company’s stock but generally options were priced between 10% and 15% of a company’s then preferred price (because common equity sits behind preferred equity there is typically a discount applied to the FMV of common stock to account for this “overhang”).

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

www.thedailymuse.com

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

We’re Hiring. What Start-ups Should Know About Hiring a Lawyer. Hiring and working with a lawyer is often confusing and daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before. What should new entrepreneurs look for when hiring a lawyer? Hiring employees. Get Involved. Meet the Team. Job Search.

Hiring 56

Hiring LLC Intellectual Property Private Equity 56

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

You never got around to agreeing exact equity splits but you had many conversations about it. Forget to get around to setting up that Employee Stock Option Plan and want to be able to give the early guys their options at a low strike price? I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Hiring Of all the issues we ran into when we first built our team, hiring was the most critical. So when you first start building your team, the most important hire should be your lead architect. The cliches of hiring the best of the best is as true in Malaysia as it is in the US. Culture creation is not easy.

Offshore 40

Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

chrischandler.name

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

If you’ve considered finding and asking a developer for his or her time in exchange for sweat equity, I’m going to strongly advise you against it. All the engineers I trust to execute a project swiftly, professionally and with quality, especially under startup conditions, will not touch an upfront equity deal with a 10-foot pole.

Equity 40

Equity Developer Entrepreneur Syndicate 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

He wants a chance at changing life’s circumstances with building equity value that might free him and his family from the rat-race of 529 accounts, property taxes, summer-school tuitions and even spending some cash on aging parents. the standard 4-6% for a hired-gun CEO). He still has the dream. He has the hunger.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley IP 150

Berkonomics

JANUARY 7, 2021

How many of them, particularly in technology, were able to start a company, supply all the funding, and share no management tasks or equity with others, and still grow the company to any significant size, worthy of a multi-million-dollar opportunity to cash out at exit? Dividing equity among those that fill the management gap.

Liquidity Event 96

Liquidity Event Pre-Money Valuation Cofounder Initial Public Offering 96

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Negotiating Employment with a Private Equity Firm – 7 Surprises to Expect. Negotiate Your Equity And Salary With Stock Option Counsel Tips. Here’s How Startup Founders Should Offer Employee Equity. Private company stock option grants: a founder’s guide to who gets what, when.

Due Diligence 60

Due Diligence Stock Options Covenant Private Equity 60

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

Define how you want to motivate your employees every day to produce high-quality and industry-leading results. They should be able to hire great designers to help build a better product. When it comes to equity, be fair. Make sure you hire an experienced lawyer for setting up the company. This is totally unique.

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. 2 Stock Classes: Common and Preferred. 5 Stock vs Options. 6 Founders / Restricted Stock. 7 Salary vs Equity. Important disclaimer: Ive got experience negotiating stock compensation packages from both sides of the table. From Payne.org Wiki. 3 Dilution. 4 Vesting.

Equity 56

Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2013

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. You need to know this as a future employee, since it probably gates how long your new job will last. How much “skin” is already in the game? Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 253

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 253

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Why do you think there are so few women in private equity, and what can be done to change that? Two of my most senior hires were top women who were the best for the job. Early in my climb I was hyper-focused on title and pay, realizing later that good health was like a stock option that pays off later.

Switzerland 264

Switzerland Private Equity Stock Options Equity 264

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Stock Option. If you are more of a technical person and not a business leader by nature, make sure your investor knows that you intend to hire a CEO to take your place as soon as reasonably possible. Management Resumes and Organizational Chart. Customer References. Personal References. But don’t ask for a non-disclosure.

Angel Investor 159

Angel Investor Technical Review Software Review Accredited Investor 159

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Other than starting to build, hire, and take over the world, there are a bunch of mundane things to do right away. Foundation for New Employee Hires Formulate and socialize with the Board acceptable compensation bands (both salary and equity options) for new employees. You’ve just closed your seed round.

Founder 156

Founder Cap Table Stock Options PR 156

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. You need to know this as a future employee, since it probably gates how long your new job will last. How much “skin” is already in the game? Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 244

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate Intellectual Property 244

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2013

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. You need to know this as a future employee, since it probably gates how long your new job will last. Image via LeadChangeGroup.com. How much “skin” is already in the game?

Due Diligence 174

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Burn Rate 174

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

They need the money to rent offices, hire staff, and establish their initial presence (website, incorporation, marketing). Option Two: Post-Launch?—?Raise You’re less vulnerable, pay less equity for your funding, and you have some very specific things to talk about. Without funding most tech startups will die.

Technical Cofounder 20

Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Early Stage Cofounder 20

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2011

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. You need to know this as a future employee, since it probably gates how long your new job will last. How much “skin” is already in the game? Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 237

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Entrepreneur 237

Scott Edward Walker

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Split the equity based on prior contributions and expectations going forward, not necessarily equally (see post here ). If you hire any employees, make sure you don’t misclassify them as an independent contractor or fail to pay them at least the minimum wage (see post here ).

Accredited Investor 111

Accredited Investor Stock Options Delaware Silicon Valley 111

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2010

If you really want to impress a startup founder as a potential employee, or you want to be a smart investor, you need to know the right questions to ask. You need to know this as a future employee, since it probably gates how long your new job will last. How much "skin” is already in the game? Who is a real customer that I can talk to?

Due Diligence 229

Due Diligence Sweat Equity Intellectual Property Startup 229

The Next Web

JUNE 15, 2012

From Silicon Valley to Peoria, Illinois, cash-strapped startups look for inventive way to finance their business – often handing out equity to employees, consultants, vendors, and other service providers. Pitfalls in sharing equity. While equity can be a great tool for compensating early on, the drawbacks are significant.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Founders. Equity for Employees.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

This post doesn’t going into general tactical approaches of job offer negotiation, but rather focuses on the fact that with startups a significant part of compensation is related to equity or options. So optimizing a startup offer involves not just one key figure – salary – but also the option package.

Startup 121

Startup Equity Vesting Salary 121

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 23, 2023

Here is the warning: The execution of equity allocations and of a good incentive program using equity is often mismanaged, damaging the corporate capitalization structure and even affecting the outcome of subsequent investment into the company. … Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun. Here are some rules.

Equity 62

Equity Stock Options Vesting Early Stage 62

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. (The of MySpace, Inc.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

www.startupnorth.ca

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home Events Contact Jobs StartupIndex Founders versus early employees by David Crow on September 10th, 2009 in Resources Not everyone can be a founder. But for every founder, there is an early employee that takes near equal risks in joining an early-stage company. David Beisel We need to celebrate the employees at startups.

Employee 41

Employee Founder Salary Equity 41

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

Said another way, if I were interviewing you for a job at a startup and you were title crazed I would never hire you. VP and higher positions are outright entitled to understand exactly the percentage ownership of the company their equity package represents. Equity packages are either stock options or restricted stock.

Startup 40

Startup Stock Options Vesting Equity 40