Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

So even within the “alternative class&# our LPs are looking at other asset investment choices such as distressed buyout funds, private equity or hedge funds. You don’t have to hire as many sales people because much can be sold online. Many firms didn’t even return LPs their original money let along a profit.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

o Early on they hired 3 people from ACT software at once (more team hiring) on staff and supplement it with Agency (in LA worked with First Communications – good). If you need money to even hire a developer [means you cannot even excite one person to put in some sweat equity – not a good sign about your ability to motivate people.].

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

I can save tons of development time and I think I can buy it for all equity. But to be clear the overwhelming majority of deals involve one company driving the cultural integration, establishment of uniform processes, hiring / firing decisions, etc. A close friend of mine in LA who is 3 years into his startup called me about 2.5

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 1, 2016

They hire their initial co-founders and early employees and everybody has a sense of “mission.” We try to hire deeply analytical associates to can help companies problem solve and who make us better investors. You don’t have unlimited equity to dole out. A Sense of Purpose.

Leadership 150

Leadership Southern California San Diego Hiring 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

He wants a chance at changing life’s circumstances with building equity value that might free him and his family from the rat-race of 529 accounts, property taxes, summer-school tuitions and even spending some cash on aging parents. the standard 4-6% for a hired-gun CEO). He still has the dream. He has the hunger.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Liquidation Preference Silicon Valley IP 150

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

But this mania to not miss out on the next big thing is driving some investors to pay growth-equity prices for traditional market risk (as in, they’re paying up before it is clear there is product / market fit). And well they should be. And so on down then line. You know what I’m talking about. You feel it, too.

Saudi Arabia 309

Saudi Arabia Valuation IPO Technical Review 309

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. He would have found somebody technical and inspired that individual to work for equity or deferred payment. He still had no website and no prototypes. I said that was my point. “A real entrepreneur would have done it anyway.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

interviewing critical hires at a time where they have 3 other offers. .” That means sitting on boards and helping entrepreneurs to handle the most difficult things that pop up like: lawsuits. founder fighting. lack of traction, lack of downstream financing availability. strategic direction. help debating before key negotiations.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

Hire your co-founder. Give them a large sum of equity. Involve them in fund raising, hiring, strategy, etc. So trust me when I tell you that you can hire incredibly talented people for 30% of your company. Vested over 4 years. If you ever fall out of love you have a pre-nuptial agreement. Who gets 30%? That’s who.

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 10, 2021

In fact, we just announced that we hired a new head of our Growth Platform, (follow him on Twitter here ? that broadly covers decentralized applications and possibly even decentralized autonomous organizations (which could imply that in the future VCs need to be more focused on token value and monetization than equity ownership models?—?we’ll

Pre-Money Valuation 471

Pre-Money Valuation Valuation Venture Capital Early Stage 471

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 11, 2013

I often advise startup companies not to try and pin all of your brand equity into an announcement. And the most wonderful byproduct is that I believe it helps communicate with all of our team and with future hires what our expectations are. Hamet Watt – More recently we announced that we hired Hamet Watt as a partner as well.

Ireland 324

Ireland Jordan Portfolio Flash 324

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

Many of the growth equity firms have had outbound dialing programs for years. Growth equity firms typically target profitable businesses that are often not technical in nature. Perhaps outbound dialing / emailing programs worked well for growth equity firms in their core business. These kind of companies were seldom startups.

Programming 294

Programming Entrepreneur Private Equity Equity 294

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2010

My job doesn’t involve the daily grind of customer complaints, product outages, business partner / channel problems, hiring / firing, etc. The upside for entrepreneurs is the equity in their business. When I go to conference I never sit in the meeting section – I always cruise the halls meeting people.

Technical Review 312

Technical Review Due Diligence Spain Warrant 312

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 31, 2012

Sales people aren’t always motivated only by cash – especially in early-stage business you need to focus on equity because cash won’t be plentiful. I don’t recommend that you hire traditional sales people when your company is too early-stage. Specifically, 1.

Startup 319

Startup Early Stage Sales Cofounder 319

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

The buyer is shopping for equity in startups and the seller is looking for cash in exchange for equity and shared governing control of his or her company. I hired a sales coach named Kai Krickle who helped me figure out how to close more deals. For starters you have to realize that fund-raising is a sales process.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

Side note: LA seems to have had some success in mega deals led by private equity firms as evidenced by DemandMedia and Chris DeWolf’s latest company backed by more than $20 million in private equity. You don’t have a pool of thousands of Google engineers to hire when they’re ready to leave the mother ship.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Technology Los Angeles Southern California 290

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

This time by the efforts of Adeo Ressi to introduce a new kind of structure called “ convertible equity.” My initial reaction to Adeo when we spoke was that while it may have solved some issues (debt versus equity) it didn’t solve the ones that I’ve been warning entrepreneurs about most loudly.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2010

I hired you because you’re smart. with the pickup in tech hiring we’re seeing a lot of our developers getting calls from other startups.&#. Option 3: “we could promise pay increases on next fund raising round and not focus on equity. As your senior manager I’m happy to help you any time you need.

Equity 342

Equity Hiring Developer Management 342

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2009

To be clear – it is not about being stingy with or hoarding equity – it is about having a prenuptial agreement. What if the person performs OK, but not great and you need to hire above him? I believe that it very important to spread the equity. If it becomes the next YouTube you always stay friends. Who prevails?

Founder 251

Founder Cofounder Equity Stock Options 251

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 17, 2012

I would gladly part with equity (actually, I have) to work with people like her on deals. One day if you’re lucky you’ll be big enough to work with recruiters to hire senior members of your team or your board. EXECUTIVE RECRUITERS.

Startup 363

Startup PR Venture Capital Angel Investor 363

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

You never got around to agreeing exact equity splits but you had many conversations about it. I know he’s smart but you wouldn’t hire a Javascript developer to do your database design – would you? I write about some of the lessons in my post on Startup Mistakes. Here’s a hack for you.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

agreeing whether or not to top up a founder’s equity. So if you hire a senior sales rep with 100% bonus on top of their $150,000 base salary they want to get paid $100,000 (33% of $300,000). Why should I pay 2x the price to hire a VP of sales as I would pay to hire a VP of Market, Technology or Finance? part refund?

Mexico 305

Mexico Term Sheet Hiring Search 305

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2016

Defy teaches them personal finance like how to keep a checking account, the difference between debt and equity, what cashflow is and so forth. And as I’m sure you know the system isn’t exactly hospitable to employing ex-felons so the best way to sustain them is to find self employment and for them to hire each other. And the results?

California 150

California Programming Private Equity Equity 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2015

The truth is that the brutal reality of public markets is that they self correct much more quickly than our shitty little private equity illiquid corner of the universe. And I actually think we could learn a lot from public investors even if we don’t always feel culturally aligned.

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate San Francisco Private Equity LP 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Only Hire A+ People Who Punch Above Their Weight Class. There are people who tell startups that they should hire the most senior people that they can find. I’m a big believer in only hiring A+ team members. Hiring the big gun will often still be one weight class above where you want to hire. Not so fast.

Hiring 327

Hiring Startup Equity Sales 327

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. Well, if you have an option pool of only 6% and have many more execs to hire to build out your team you’re going to ask for more options to be created in the future.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

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

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

Early in a services business there is usually no profits as the company reinvests in hiring people to grow, but by $20 million in sales the company should at least be pulling in 10% profits (if not more) depending on how much is reinvested. That is $12 million in profits over 3 years. But it might not.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley IP Dividend Finance 332

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 31, 2011

You’ve come full cycle from vision, to hiring some people, raising some cash, arguing about direction, setting a release date, missing a release date, feeling like you’ve effed everything up, regrouping, rethinking, getting back on track and then setting your baby loose into the wild. But not for the faint hearted.&#.

Entrepreneur 384

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 384

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

It’s just that many companies waste equity on advisory boards, pick the wrong advisers or set up advisory boards with the wrong expectations. These can be competitive threats, customer adoption problems, pricing strategies, senior hires, whatever. People love their advisers and I don’t blame them.

Advisory Board 215

Advisory Board Strategic Investors Venture Capital Later Stage 215

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2011

You’ve come full cycle from vision, to hiring some people, raising some cash, arguing about direction, setting a release date, missing a release date, feeling like you’ve effed everything up, regrouping, rethinking, getting back on track and then setting your baby loose into the wild. But not for the faint hearted.&#.

Entrepreneur 176

Entrepreneur Startup Salary Egypt 176

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference. I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. We know it can be done.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When an entrepreneur takes on investors who take equity (i.e. The board is where large equity investors get their representation. Local I feel strongly that you should consider hiring an independent that is local to you. That’s why hiring somebody with some startup experience can really help. Yes, this is a thing.

Warrant 187

Warrant LP Cofounder Founder 187

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

And equal numbers of startups seeking celebrity endorsements in exchange for equity. Don’t give up your hard-earned equity to celebrities. But by then the celeb will be on to their next opportunity and you will be out some equity. For the most part my advice is simple, “don’t bother.” It is a waste.

Startup 321

Startup Equity Warrant Dilution 321

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

As some of the last generation of startups have gotten bigger many VCs have also chased later-stage investments that were traditionally dominated by growth equity or mezzanine funds. And of course hedge funds and growth-equity funds can’t resist trying to get earlier-stage exposure again. Will public investments come next?

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2010

You decide to go out and hire a sales rep. If you haven’t already sold enough of your product directly to have enough volume to satisfy your channel partner he/she simply won’t end up pushing it – no matter how excited their MBA adorned biz dev guy was when he inked your deal. Imagine this. They are your lifeblood.

Channel 293

Channel Startup Sales Partner 293

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 9, 2011

I show charts on housing, structural unemployment, home equity re-financings that we spent meaning less spending power post crash, new housing sales, debt-to-income ratios, public-sector job problems that will cause crises in cities and states across the US. And the equity in their house isn’t rising. My prognosis?

Stock 305

Stock Technical Review Marketing Greece 305