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What to expect before accepting the offer to become Engineer #1 at a startup

The Next Web

From the perspective of my outside friends, why are employees that so clearly impact the growth trajectory of a company look like they’re getting screwed? Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. These common shares are granted to founders from the beginning, not employees.

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The Option Pool Shuffle

venturehacks.com

SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS The Option Pool Shuffle by Nivi on April 10th, 2007 “Follow the money card!&# – The Inside Man, Three-Card Shuffle Summary: Don’t let your investors determine the size of the option pool for you. Don’t lose this game. share to $1.00/share:

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How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees

thinkspace.com

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 Employees. Strike price of options: meaningless.

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Most Common Early Start-up Mistakes

Both Sides of the Table

Assuming normal valuations at fund raising rounds you’ll be down to 6-12% after you’ve created a stock-option pool and raised capital. But these people seldom make retirement money from the stock options on these companies. You can be talking with potential employees all along the process getting them excited.

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Cliff Notes S-1: Kayak ? AGILEVC

Agile VC

5) High Productivity: Kayak had 148 employees at the end of 2010. That means that Kayak generates roughly $1.15M in revenue for each employee which puts it in the same league as Google and Apple (both >$1M/head). Led by Oak Investment Partners with participation by General Catalyst, Sequoia, & Accel and others.

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VCs eating our own dog food: Using technology and analytics to make better investments

David Teten

But in business, you want a lot of partners. In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. Point Nine Capital uses 15Five for continuous employee feedback. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. 1) Manage the firm . 2) Market .

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Be careful about equity and options!

Berkonomics

and here is the usual early-stage trap… First, a brand-new enterprise is often formed from the efforts of several “partners”, each with an expertise valued by the others. It is important to note that each grant to new or existing employees must be approved by the board before issue. Director level employees are typically granted ½%.

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