The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

With all other things equal, that means that a 50/50 split between two co-founders (evenly split if there are more than two), or a 66/33 split based on the premium for coming up with the original idea, and for starting the initial development efforts and sourcing the original team. To me, that is no different than financing the business.

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 19, 2020

In a couple of cases, the founders played lawyer on their own; in the other cases, the founders either used (i) a Web service that did not address IP issues or (ii) an inexperienced law firm. This would arise as a result of a founder improperly “moonlighting” (i.e., Any IP created by a founder (e.g.,

IP 52

IP Software Review Founder Technical Review 52

The Next Web

JULY 21, 2013

You have an awesome idea and a great co-founder with whom you want to work. This is why vesting is so important. Investing in vesting. In essence, vesting protects founders from each other and aligns incentives so everybody focuses towards a common goal: building a successful company. An example.

Vesting 143

Vesting Founder Chile Equity 143

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

As Finance Fridays continues, we are introducing the concept of the Cap Table. The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years. The vesting schedule protects each of the co-founders in case one gets hit by a bus or decides to drop the project after a short period of time.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Later, when your venture is trying to close on financing, or even going public, that forgotten partner surfaces, demanding their original share.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

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

www.seriesseed.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Series Seed Financing Documents Blog. Series Seed Financing Documents. Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Series Seed Financing Documents : 1 Reblog. This is all built into a typical founder stock purchase agreement. This is great.simplified funding/founders docs out of the box. SeriesSeed.com.

Finance 40

Finance Term Sheet Vesting LLC 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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 27, 2013

My internal compass says that “country-club” entrepreneurs struggle to make as big of an impact because it’s really hard to totally change a system that you’re part of and have a vested interest in. and if you haven’t seen 20 Feet From Stardom , which this founder talks about in his letter to Seth, you must.

Churn Rate 371

Churn Rate Vesting Viral eCommerce 371

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.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

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. In most cases, you’ll only be losing a few months of vesting on the stock. It’s a logical solution. Pitfalls in sharing equity.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

Founders Dilemmas: Equity Splits. The following is an excerpt from HBS Professor Noam Wasserman’s new book, The Founders Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. On average, the founders who keep the most control over their company make the least amount of money. Lessons Learned.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How many of their founders are still with their company? How many of their founders are still with their company? Will they tailor your vesting to your contribution as a founder?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business. So my advice to CTO / Founders?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Imagine how much tougher a dead-equity dilemma becomes when co-founders, who tend to hold large equity stakes, are involved. Noam Wasserman on Inc.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Stock options are issued to employees usually through an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) and include what is called a “vesting period.” The vesting period, often three or four years, frees up a percentage of the options for the employee to purchase the longer they stay at the company. Restricted stock: . If you don’t need to

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

Equity 137

Equity Finance Denver Pre-Money Valuation 137

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 24, 2014

The vast majority of my future savings was (a) not vested yet and (b) tied to hope for future stock grants I’d earn. It’s for reasons like these that I support getting startup founders some liquidity during their company’s first few years, perhaps as early as Series A financing when appropriate.

Founder 108

Founder San Francisco Liquidity Event LP 108

Up and Running

APRIL 3, 2018

But it was Gary Keller, the co-founder of Keller-Williams Realty, the world’s largest residential real estate firm and the author of the book, “ The One Thing ,” who took it further. The same goes for leadership, sales, finance, and even personal areas such as health or family relationships. Should you pay for a coach?

Vesting 85

Vesting Community Small Business Cofounder 85

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 24, 2012

The following is an excerpt from HBS Professor Noam Wasserman’s new book, The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. The book taps Noam’s analyses of data on 10,000 founders, plus the personal stories of Evan Williams of Twitter, Tim Westergren of Pandora, and two dozen other founders.

Equity 168

Equity Founder Cofounder Vesting 168

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2013

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Later, when your venture is trying to close on financing, or even going public, that forgotten partner surfaces, demanding their original share.

Non-Compete 235

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Startup Cofounder 235

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. We will grant him/her X% fully diluted shares up front, and every time he/she makes an introduction, he/she will vest in 100 shares.” The most you lose is 1 or 2 months of vesting on the stock. Quora Answers.

Equity 40

Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Imagine how much tougher a dead-equity dilemma becomes when co-founders, who tend to hold large equity stakes, are involved. Noam Wasserman on Inc.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

It’s like we need a finance 101 course for entrepreneurs. In finance they call it “terminal value” but the truth is the price is as arbitrary at your A round as it is at your seed round. I know how to structure around that to protect the founders from getting screwed on a multiple liquidation preference.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. Co-founders are an entirely different discussion and I am not talking about them in this post. This "best value" can be the valuation on the last round of financing. Or it can be a recent offer to buy your company that you turned down.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Dilution 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2012

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Later, when your venture is trying to close on financing, or even going public, that forgotten partner surfaces, demanding their original share.

Non-Compete 249

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder Startup 249

www.founderinstitute.com

MARCH 2, 2010

He has been actively involved in merger, acquisition and disposition transactions with a combined value of over $1 billion, and financing/investment transactions and securities offerings worth over $600 million. Single trigger vesting , which allows founders to vest all of their equity and make money in an exit.

Term Sheet 40

Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Vesting San Diego 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? The real question here is: why is it fair for founders to get so much more?

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2011

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Early co-founders often drop out of the picture due to disagreements, and you forget about them, but they don’t forget about the verbal promises you made.

Non-Compete 246

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Entrepreneur Cofounder 246

K9 Ventures

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Let’s say you’re the founder (I use a solo-founder in my example to keep things simple, but this could just as well apply to a founding team) of a startup called Blood, Sweat and Tears, Inc. The objective is really to be able to get some risk off the table for the founders and not leave all their eggs in one basket.

Founder 87

Founder Common Stock Preferred Stock Stock 87

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Finance | Tuesdays. Financing a Small Business. Financing A Small Business. Personal Finance. Before Roving Software could receive its first round of financing from professional investors, in early 1999, he had to put all the stock arrangements in writing. Start-up | Mondays. Technology | Thursdays. Franchises.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

K9 Ventures

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Let’s say you’re the founder (I use a solo-founder in my example to keep things simple, but this could just as well apply to a founding team) of a startup called Blood, Sweat and Tears, Inc. The objective is really to be able to get some risk off the table for the founders and not leave all their eggs in one basket.

Founder 84

Founder Common Stock Preferred Stock Stock 84

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Finance and a host of other wonderful services brought to you by their sponsors. delivers significant revenues (which they share with the publishers) then the people who are driving real revenue for themselves have a vested interest in staying with Twitter. The Founder & CEO of Ad.ly 30% is the market opportunity.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Advertising Early Stage Internet 286

techcrunch.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

As CEO and co-founder Naval Ravikant tells me, when he and co-founder Babak Nivi started VentureHacks a few years ago, their goal was to educate companies on how to negotiate venture term sheets. In fact, Wilson Sonsini will close financings for startups using Docs for their seed rounds but you must become a client of the firms.

Term Sheet 70

Term Sheet San Francisco Technical Review Seed Stage 70

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 14, 2015

Unless you’re lucky enough to already have the funds in hand, then you are most likely to get the financing you need via a business loan – and the backbone of a successful business loan application is collateral. Should you give up, or is it still possible to access financing? What if you don’t have enough collateral?

Security 60

Security SBA Warrant Software Review 60

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Simeon, can you tell us how you structure ownership and control so you can fire your co-founders if necessary? The first part will dispel some myths, address the lifecycle of founder agreements and the key compensation and control parameters in them. Let’s start by dispelling some myths: There is a standard founder agreement.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Let me preface by saying I obviously have a vested interest in being wrong about tough times ahead but as the old saying goes, “hope for best, plan for the worst.”. Let me preface by saying I obviously have a vested interest in being wrong about tough times ahead but as the old saying goes, “hope for best, plan for the worst.”.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Technical Review Balance Sheet Government 298