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

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2016

I realize sports analogies for startups can feel trite, but as you think about the different phases of team-building in a startup, this one is actually pretty spot on. At the beginning, a startup team is typically just a couple of co-founders. Basketball or football? Below, I take a look at each.

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Startup Early Stage 120

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

It is our startup sector which will drive this innovative progress. Startup founders are our ambitious problem solvers. To generate growth in a startup, it is almost always necessary to raise external capital to run the necessary. In order to understand startup governance, you need to understand risk and reward.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. There are a lot of variables to go into calculating a fair equity split a startup team. So, a fair split, would be closer to 60/40 in favor of the funding founder, when diluted for the cash.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

VC Adventure

AUGUST 16, 2020

Despite how much time companies talk about the importance of their employees and, in many cases, how every employee is also an “owner” of their business through their option program, most companies are pretty ad hoc (or down right sloppy) about how they plan for and execute their option program.

Programming 149

Programming Vesting Equity Software Review 149

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. is frequently granted ownership significantly less than that of the founders.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Over the past six months, my firm has been engaged by a number of startups with significant intellectual property (“IP”) problems. In a couple of cases, the founders played lawyer on their own; in the other cases, the founders either used (i) a Web service that did not address IP issues or (ii) an inexperienced law firm.

IP 52

IP Software Review Founder Technical Review 52

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2022

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire or better? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

Stock Options 343

Stock Options Advisory Board Stock Startup 343

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

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. And I tried to evaluate the idea and figure out: What did the founder really need here? Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both?

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 27, 2016

One of these norms is how founder vesting and employee vesting works. I won’t get into employee vesting today as that has much more to consider than I have time to cover in this short post today. Here is a good summary post from Cooley GO on Founder Vesting. The first is fairly obvious.

Founder Vesting 48

Founder Vesting Vesting Founder Term Sheet 48

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Question My co-founders and I are working on a cool new site, and we’ll be ready to launch in a few weeks. Vesting Restrictions. The first deadly mistake relates to vesting restrictions. Otherwise, if one of the founders quits after a few months, he would take all of his shares with him.

Vesting 89

Vesting Software Review IP Intellectual Property 89

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

Although every startup is unique, there are certain common avoidable mistakes that can lead to legal complications which jeopardize the long-term success of the business. Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We We also got lucky and qualified for some startup benefits with companies like Rackspace, who covered our infrastructure costs for the first year,” continues Arsenault. “We spent $20k on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2013

In reality, so-called “founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. These shares are allocated and committed, but not really issued and owned (vested) until later.

Vesting 245

Vesting Common Stock Stock Founder Vesting 245

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I covered what I call “the co-founder mythology.&# Either you’re not technical and you think you need a technical co-founder or vice-versa. It is increasingly popular to have “founder dating&# or “startup weekend hackathons&# of some variety or the other. Hire your co-founder. Who gets 30%?

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The co-Founder relationship dilemma.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

These periods of time can leave a founder very vulnerable in the future. These same people will join you and your one other co-founder (maximum) 6 months later when you’ve established the company, done your Powerpoint deck, built a prototype or product and started fund raising discussions. Founder vesting.

Founder Vesting 365

Founder Vesting Intellectual Property Stock Options IP 365

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. Speed is often of the essence early on in the startup lifecycle, and that often means rushing into casual arrangements.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact Home About Contact The Metamorphosis Becoming an Entrepreneur, by Matt Mireles Startup Lessons for the Proto-Founder I started SpeakerText in October 2008 during the financial apocalypse. You need a Co-Founder, not an Engineering Bitch. You’ll be the only startup there. No one funded us.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Employee Equity: How Much? The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. And the fourth bracket are employees who are not in key functions.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS How to pick a co-founder by Naval Ravikant on November 12th, 2009 Update : Also see our 40-minute interview on this topic. Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. but it’s manageable. . —

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

The Next Web

AUGUST 14, 2013

Editors Note: This is a guest post by Slava Akhmechet, founder of RethinkDB. There are already very good lists of startup lessons written by really talented, experienced people ( here and here ). Always have a vesting schedule. Do everything you can not to attach your self esteem to your startup (you’ll fail, but try anyway).

Startup 161

Startup Ruby Technical Review Vesting 161

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder.

Equity 315

Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We We also got lucky and qualified for some startup benefits with companies like Rackspace, who covered our infrastructure costs for the first year,” continues Arsenault. “We spent $20k on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2014

In reality, so-called “Founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. These shares are allocated and committed, but not really issued and owned (vested) until later.

Stock 256

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 256

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

I rarely talk to any startup entrepreneur or VC who doesn’t feel it and somehow long for simpler times despite the benefits we all enjoy from increased enthusiasm for our sector. Of course your friend’s company raised $50 million and offers it’s employees free kombucha and desk massages. Easier said than done.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Type to Add and Search Questions; Search Topics and People Startups Startup Compensation Entrepreneurship Compensation Stock Options Major Internet Companies Silicon Valley Why is there such a large founder to early employee equity drop-off? Many startups these days are first-time entrepreneurs. This answer.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. Changing Equity Structures for Early Startup Employees Tweet Recently someone asked me for advice on how much equity they should give to their early employees. Those first employees will take 0.5-1%

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. And I think about the “Seattle issue&# as a metaphor for startups and business in general. I was meeting with a first-time CEO of a very promising young startup recently and offering my advice on what his priorities should be.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

My internal compass says that “country-club” entrepreneurs struggle to make as big of an impact because it’s really hard to totally change a system that you’re part of and have a vested interest in. This is a very predictable phase of the startup journey and a lot of good can come from it. So positive chips are a great signal for me.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Vesting Dilution Europe 150

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 13, 2015

by Cristian Rennella, founder of Mejor Trato. For me, each new business venture should have between 2 (two) and a maximum of 4 (four) founders for optimal operation. The division of the shares, meaning, what ownership each founder has in the company, should be equal (or as close to equal as possible). Participation.

Delaware 100

Delaware Technical Review United States Vesting 100

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. While technical debt is an understood problem, it turns out startups also accrue another kind of debt – one that can kill the company even quicker – organizational debt. And let me tell you about the vision and strategy again.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120