VC Adventure

AUGUST 16, 2020

It strikes me that many founders never really consider this question. Many founders feel that it’s equitable to have everyone share in the upside and feel like owners. But it will also change the nature of your workforce if you only hire employees that can work for well below market cash comp.

Programming 149

Programming Vesting Equity Software Review 149

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Of course, not every equity compensation story is a David Choe Story. 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. In this article, I’m going to examine: What equity compensation is. Different types of equity compensation.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

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

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.

Equity 62

Equity Stock Options Vesting Early Stage 62

techcrunch.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Free Startup Docs: How Much Equity Should Advisors Get? This is where a lot of founders get stuck. Entrepreneurs want to compensate their mentors and advisors for the time they dedicate to helping their businesses grow, but they have no idea how much equity to offer. Digital Cameras. Headphones. CrunchBase. Hot topics.

Equity 94

Equity San Francisco Startup Silicon Valley 94

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

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. However, at the very early stage, they are taking as much risk with their future as the founders. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters. million.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

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 An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I Rejoiner spent $0 on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

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. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Startup founders are our ambitious problem solvers. experiments to build a product, find customers, test business models and hire amazing people. experiments to build a product, find customers, test business models and hire amazing people. This equity will vest over 2-3 years. Risk and reward. Accountability.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters. million.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

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 An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I Rejoiner spent $0 on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

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

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

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

Andrew Payne

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

I’ve probably had a thousand or more discussions about startup equity: figuring out how much to offer, negotiating, or advising others. In practice, most equity grants within a company are driven by broad calibrations with existing employees. And, how can founders talk about percentages before any funding?

Equity 71

Equity Founder Vesting Dilution 71

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. What are the terms of their relationship with the founder? How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e.,

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Gust

APRIL 9, 2014

Equity dilution works when the same pie is divided among more people. The Founder of a company starts by owning all the shares representing ownership of the company. Therefore, to avoid dilution to its existing equity holders, all a company has to do is not hire any more employees who get options, or take any more money from investors.

Dilution 150

Dilution Equity Vesting Stock Options 150

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

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. Equity for Consultants – Keep it Simple! posted Feb 3 in Equity , People issues. The most you lose is 1 or 2 months of vesting on the stock. A View from the Valley. Blog blog archive. Quora Answers.

Equity 40

Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

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 Parker found that equity as compensation helped build loyalty to his company -- even among consultants.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

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? This ties into this Paul Graham article: [link] /equity.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

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. One founder companies can work, against the odds (hello, Mark Zuckerberg).

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

While he kept bringing the conversation back to their big valuation I tried to steer the conversation back to how they were going to deal with: training the influx of new hires – in both culture and job specific tasks. retaining their existing hires who were working for intern-like salaries with little equity. the company had.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

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. We have no money – so we’re going to do the legal ourselves. (And please don’t tell us to hire a lawyer.) Vesting Restrictions. The first deadly mistake relates to vesting restrictions.

Vesting 89

Vesting Software Review IP Intellectual Property 89

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

For those negotiating equity allocations it covers some of the most complex issues to address in the process. Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun. This post is longer than usual. I just couldn’t reduce it to far fewer words… Dave.

Early Stage 102

Early Stage Equity Stock Options Vesting 102

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. (To see the video above, please click the image, and then click on the Play button.).

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

discuss.joelonsoftware.com

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

where I can learn about how to build a sweat equity team? where I can learn about how to build a sweat equity team? Rather, it is a proposal for sweat-equity investors. Equity partners need to have a hand in guiding the enterprise. I intend to rewrite my internal 50-page business plan into an investors proposal.

Sweat Equity 40

Sweat Equity Equity Angel Investor Affiliate 40

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. Date for a bit, then split the equity. No one funded us. Just go for it.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

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. I gave him similar numbers to what I had been given when I was hiring the first few employees for Standout Jobs. But I also told him that I though the numbers were wrong.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. founder fighting. founder fighting. Both are right. and much more.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

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. Break Room.

Hiring 56

Hiring LLC Intellectual Property Private Equity 56

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

This is the classic “hire people smarter than you” which is harder said than done. Total = 0.75% for 3 advisors that vest as you see fit to help you over the next 1–4 years (more on vesting below). As a potential advisor looking to get involved with the company; MORE EQUITY! Vesting Schedules. Advisor 2 = 0.25%.

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. Today, in steps 10-12 I want to discuss with you raising your first round of money, hiring to develop and maintain your company culture, as well as defining your role in the management of your startup. 60-70% for founders.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

You don’t even need to do anything and we’ll give you equity. Great founders are always recruiting. It doesn’t have to be a huge commitment on their part (or significant equity), but just start giving them some tie to your startup and some incentive to maintain the relationship. Can we put you as an advisor in our deck?

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Equity Vesting Startup 151

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2009

Yesterday I wrote a blog post ( here ) in which I urged people to not have too many founders. What if the person performs OK, but not great and you need to hire above him? These situations are only compounded if you have 3 or more founders. They agreed to all be co-founders. Who prevails? That’s great.

Founder 251

Founder Cofounder Equity Stock Options 251

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 24, 2021

Startups Should Work To Make Their Employees Wealthy Not Just Their Founders And Investors. That low price was part of what enabled me to purchase my vested options when I left, a conundrum that exiting employees often face. And why we work with the founders we back to make sure there’s enough equity set aside to make great hires.

Silicon Valley 83

Silicon Valley Equity Vesting Cofounder 83

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 2, 2017

It’s hard enough to get a job at a venture capital or private equity firm; it’s even more complex to join as a Partner. Also see Preqin’s Key Due Diligence Considerations for Private Equity Investors. . VC and private equity are very illiquid on both the investing and the personnel side. So assessing fit is critical.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Partner 60