article thumbnail

Introducing the Cap Table and Hiring the CTO

Feld Thoughts

This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. 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. Time to update the cap table.

Cap Table 133
article thumbnail

Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups

SoCal CTO

For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. For example, suppose you're just two founders and you want to hire an additional hacker who's so good you feel he'll increase the average outcome of the whole company by 20%. Stock vests for 4 years.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Should You Share Equity with Consultants?

www.inc.com

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 Create an options pool, if nothing more than in your mind, so you have some parameters to work within," Durkin says.

article thumbnail

What to expect before accepting the offer to become Engineer #1 at a startup

The Next Web

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. After a year, shares will vest in monthly or quarterly splits until the full grant is vested. How do you feel about that number?

Engineer 129
article thumbnail

How to Find the Perfect Startup Job: Part IV "Negotiating the Startup Offer"

Genuine VC

At a board level, VCs and other members don’t like to see someone recently hired already receiving new options or a salary raise after a short period of time. The board’s bias will be to spend those resources on hiring new talent or to retain those who have worked at the company longer and harder. Early-Stage.

Startup 121
article thumbnail

Cap Table Clean Up

ithacaVC

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. And don’t forget that the options granted would come out of the available option pool.

article thumbnail

Changing Equity Structures for Early Startup Employees

www.instigatorblog.com

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. Immediately makes them more like owners than employees, and doesn't have the same vesting timeline.

Equity 41