www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Entrepreneur news from reporter Eric Markowitz. 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 Small Business Success | Mondays and Thursdays. The Goods: Your Business Toolbox | Thursdays. Finance | Tuesdays.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

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:

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. Entrepreneur Insider Analysis and Opinion How-To''s' He or she is also often recruited without much, if any, cash in the bank.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 15, 2009

Thus, the universe of financings that even the most experienced entrepreneurs get directly exposed to is typically 5-10 financings over a 15-20 year career. Year in, year out, Thus, VCs and entrepreneurs are not operating on an equal playing field when it comes to negotiating financings and interpreting the impact of the terms involved.

Pre-Money Valuation 49

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Stock Options Post-Money Valuation 49

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

You could make the same argument about acquisitions and option pools. Why aren’t we surprised when three months later that company can’t hire enough engineers? The 3-person executive team, including a CEO if one was hired, owns 10%, and splits $3.6 VCs want their pound of flesh, and entrepreneurs do too.

Liquidation Preference 63

Liquidation Preference Founder Option Pool Acquisition 63

venturehacks.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Some entrepreneurs set up quarterly advisory board meetings and that probably works well for them. But we find savvy entrepreneurs tend to be transactional—they ping their advisors as needed and skip the advisory board meetings. This is the advisor paradox : hire advisors for good advice but don’t follow it, apply it.

Advisory Board 50

Advisory Board Cap Table RSS Cofounder 50

www.mattbartus.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

You have a 20% option pool, so you know this will take your ownership down from 80% to 60%, and the VC will get 25%. Option Pool. Option Pool. My question is, can you elaborate on the benefits you see for the entrepreneur in trying to sell this to the investors? Take a look at the numbers: Pre-Money.

Warrant 40

Warrant Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 40

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

I gave him similar numbers to what I had been given when I was hiring the first few employees for Standout Jobs. This is especially true when you think of a tech startup, where the first few hires are typically engineers/programmers. But I also told him that I though the numbers were wrong. .&# 1% is just not a lot.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

venturehacks.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

In practice, you raise money or hire an employee because you need to, not because you want to. Say the equity equation tells you to pay a prospective hire above market. You should still pay the hire a market rate and save the company some equity. Say the equity equation tells you to pay a prospective hire below market.

Equity 40

Equity Cap Table Valuation RSS 40

The Next Web

JUNE 15, 2012

Any decision to hand out stock or stock options should be made within the big picture context of your company’s valuation and the total number of shares you’ll be granting. It’s wise to create a stock options pool that includes all the employees and contractors you plan on hiring in the next 18 months and how many shares each might get.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Entrepreneurs often believe their startup company faces legal threats from only external sources. Even so, I believe the negative experience can end up producing a better entrepreneur if he or she applies lessons learned to current and future startups. Who must be a co founder and who can remain a hired principal?

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. Chris Dixon, Partner, A16Z, observes , “Success in VC is probably 10% about picking, and 90% about sourcing the right deals and having entrepreneurs choose your firm as a partner”. 2) Market .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Breakups are hard If you’re going to fall out with your co-founder, do it early, recover the equity into the option pool to keep the company going, and recruit someone else great to fill the missing slot. I know a lot of people who want to be an entrepreneur but many do not have what I call the “survival gene&#.

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

Percent of the outstanding option pool: meaningless. Strike price of options: meaningless. Are there other tools that you’ve used that you think would be helpful to share with other entrepreneurs and founders? I was originally hired as a contractor, developing a SaaS app from scratch, including DB design and coding.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Normal advisors are also assembled by naive entrepreneurs who think the mere presence of an advisory board will create social proof and help them raise money. Advisor compensation Whether you’re hiring a normal advisor or super advisor: Advisory shares are usually issued as common stock options.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44