Rob Go

JUNE 17, 2014

In my last post about raising seed vs. jumping straight to A, I received a good comment from Chris Woods that my analysis neglected to include the impact of option pools that are created at each financing round. There have been others in the past that have detailed the math behind option pools and their impact on venture deals.

Option Pool 65

Option Pool Dilution .Net Term Sheet 65

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 7, 2017

But employee option pool is important enough that I wanted to briefly expand upon my comment above. While you should expect these sorts of hires to take below market cash comp versus what Google is paying them, this tradeoff needs to be replaced with equity upside.

Equity 94

Equity Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Founder 94

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Dealing almost exclusively with first time startup founders, we tackle the following question with nearly all of our CEOs: How much equity should they give to the employees? In one instance, I told a CEO that we typically recommend a 15 percent stock options pool at seed/Series A stage. She rolled her eyes in disbelief.

Equity 154

Equity Employee Option Pool Stock Options 154

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Should You Share Equity with Consultants? To grow his cash-strapped start-up, Parker ended up sharing equity -- not only with employees, but also with consultants and vendors. Parker found that equity as compensation helped build loyalty to his company -- even among consultants. But sharing equity can have pitfalls, too.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Unfortunately, what the CEO/founder forgets most often is that the notes have a multiplier effect in the post-money calculation; the more notes and the further the cap is from the new priced equity, the greater the variance between actual and nominal pre- and post-money valuations. It’s going to be great!”.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

years ago and told me, “I just got offered the chance to buy this company because the founder doesn’t want to continue. I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity. If they raise a bunch of capital little ole you isn’t going to be around to have your option pool topped up.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

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. David Crow just posted about this very topic: Founders vs. Early Employees and shows the Venture Hacks chart. But I also told him that I though the numbers were wrong.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Gust

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

Then sit down with your co-founders and divvy up the equity based on the contributions you all believe each of you will make…providing for reverse vesting, a large option pool, and a clear decision-making structure. original post can be found on Quora @ : [link] *.

Founder 134

Founder Option Pool Vesting Cofounder 134

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Raising Funding From Family and Friends: Division of Equity. When it comes to the division of equity in startup, there is a similar process every entrepreneur must follow beginning with raising the first round of startup funding and, if you’re lucky, finishing at the point of IPO. Stage 2: Co-Founder. It depends.

Equity 61

Equity Option Pool Cofounder Vesting 61

Hippoland

APRIL 10, 2016

Dear elizy : I started a company in school with two co-founders. We are trying to decide how much equity to allocate to each person. I would like to split the equity equally, since it seems only fair. But, Ada wants to split the equity 50% her, 20% Bob and 20% me with a 10% option pool.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Cap Table Equity Vesting 48

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

” Today I want to talk about how a VC thinks about equity pricing on your round and particularly if you’re coming off of a convertible note. How much is in the option pool? If you have 8 senior managers in place and I don’t think you’ll need as many people I might accept an option pool of 8% unallocated.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Neil Rimer is a Partner and co-founder of Index Ventures. Yet, surprisingly, we continue to come across founders who have made significant mistakes in their early capital raises that we suspect go against their own instincts and jeopardize the foundations of the businesses they are building.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. Led by General Catalyst with participation by co-founders Steve Hafner & Paul English.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Eric Friedman

DECEMBER 30, 2020

This is a fun area for me as there are founders and companies I am supporting in the space, and its great to see how they have grown during the “crypto winter” of the last few years. 4/ Streaming equity – venture funds + employee stock becomes more liquid. 7/ SaaS roll-ups and micro-private equity become huge.

Stock 120

Stock Private Equity Option Pool LP 120

venturehacks.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The Equity Equation. As this nuclear winter of venture hacks continues, I thought you might enjoy our thoughts on Paul Graham’s The Equity Equation. ” Read the rest of The Equity Equation first; it is great. You have to pay market rates regardless of the equity equation. Venture Hacks Good advice for startups.

Equity 40

Equity Cap Table Valuation RSS 40

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. 5 Stock vs Options. 6 Founders / Restricted Stock. 7 Salary vs Equity. The re-heating of the venture funded tech market has pushed a heat up of the hiring market, and Im getting more calls from friends asking for help understanding startup stock (equity) offers. From Payne.org Wiki.

Equity 56

Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Angels In the big angel rounds that increasingly compete with series Arounds, the investors wont take as much equity as VCs do now. AndVCs who try to compete with angels by doing more, smaller dealswill probably find they have to take less equity to do it. Whichis good news for founders: theyll get to keep more of the company.

Startup 93

Startup Valuation Non-Compete Deal Flow 93

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

You could make the same argument about acquisitions and option pools. This is probably why investors’ case for a company to sell early f ocuses exclusively on the founder : in most early-stage acquisitions, the liquidation preferences and deal-sweeteners only work for investors and founders.

Liquidation Preference 63

Liquidation Preference Founder Option Pool Acquisition 63

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 13, 2013

They are typically pretty simple: (i) shares owned by founders and (ii) shares authorized for issuance in a stock option pool, some of which may be issued to employees already and some of which will be available for future issuance. times more equity than Founder X. times more equity than Founder X.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Liquidation Preference 67

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. If an incubator offers your startup $25,000 in exchange for 6% equity, the pre-money valuation is a whopping $391,667. Other incubators may want to set up an option pool.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

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

Business Plan Blog

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

Reserve 10-20% Of Your Company’s Outstanding Equity For A Stock Option Plan. Equity incentives are a major form of compensation for most emerging growth and technology companies. It is critical for a start-up to consider this reality and reserve 10-20% of its outstanding equity for a stock option plan.

Stock Options 61

Stock Options Stock Option Pool Dilution 61

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

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

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. We talk about the founders of startups and companies. We focus on the founders. The founders get press coverage. The founders will each take a major chunk (e.g.

Employee 41

Employee Founder Salary Early Stage 41

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

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. In exchange, the engineer is likely offered the promise that his or her option shares will one day turn into big money. is frequently granted ownership significantly less than that of the founders. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

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 Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 8, 2014

In our case we set out to be founder friendly and wrote a termsheet that has the minimal set of investor protections that we can get away with as an institutional investor – we need some protections because we have a duty of care to the people who invest in our fund.

Founder Vesting 92

Founder Vesting Vesting Option Pool Institutional Investors 92

Hunter Walker

MAY 7, 2014

I recommend to founders that if there’s a unicorn you need who isn’t on founding team, (a) start identifying those people in advance of fundraising and (b) prepare to compensate them generously via equity. Many first time founders haven’t run hiring processes before, especially outside of their functional discipline.

Hiring 108

Hiring Option Pool Early Stage Term Sheet 108

The Equity Kicker

OCTOBER 8, 2014

In our case we set out to be founder friendly and wrote a termsheet that has the minimal set of investor protections that we can get away with as an institutional investor – we need some protections because we have a duty of care to the people who invest in our fund.

Founder Vesting 68

Founder Vesting Vesting Option Pool Institutional Investors 68

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2010

You can then give your most passionate advocates an informal role, or ask them to join a non-exec board, or if they can really open doors give them equity. How do startup founders know when to quit, stick or pivot? How do bootstrapped companies hire talent? How do bootstrapped companies hire talent? Nothing else. Kayak – [link].

Option Pool 88

Option Pool Analytics LLC Startup 88

Rob Go

AUGUST 29, 2016

Founders also had to do a little math on the new option pool to really understand what their ownership would be post investment, since it was typically taken out of the company pre-money. First, it creates a natural dis-incentive for a founder to raise more money than originally planned.

Post-Money Valuation 52

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Term Sheet 52

www.mattbartus.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. If you are a company that is fundraising, keep in mind that there are a few different levers you can pull to change the amount of dilution that the founders will experience. Option Pool. Option Pool.

Warrant 40

Warrant Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 40

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

The investors and the entrepreneurs are – or should be – aware that the price of the company’s equity is set by the market – in simplest terms, what an informed buyer is willing to pay.   Note that this applies only to earl stage Series A-type equity financings and assumes no cash dividends are paid to investors.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Pre-Money Valuation 68

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

Professor VC

JANUARY 17, 2008

There needs to be enough equity to go around for founders, early investors, later investors, and employees. At a $1 million, pre-money, with an investment of $500K, that would leave 67% of the company for the founders and initial option pool. for a total of $10.5M of funding in both scenarios.

Pre-Money Valuation 28

Pre-Money Valuation Angel Investor Angel Groups Valuation 28