Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2014

The acquiring company wants 100% of the proceeds to go to founders whatever the cap table says because buyers care way more about incentivizing and locking in founders than they do about VC returns or legal provisions to protect VCs. Every circumstance is different. But it’s not worth enough to fight over.

Cap Table 346

Cap Table Cofounder Stock Acquisition 346

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 28, 2021

My co-founders, I’ve worked with for an average of 15 years – we know and trust each other tremendously. And for the most part, the same is true about our cap table. No institutional debt like a messy cap table, legacy people issues, leases for offices we don’t want or need any more.

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Early Stage Cofounder Leadership 62

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

PEVCTech is partnering with Blue Future Partners to run the first large-scale survey of VCs’ technology stack. Johann Kratzer of Blue Future Partners , a fund of funds, observed, “The majority of the hundreds of funds we’ve diligenced rely predominantly on their relationships to source deals. Greylock Partners.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. The most serious unintended consequence occurs from “note waterfalls”— converting multiple notes that have multiple valuation caps. Many entrepreneurs lose track of what they have been cooking up in the cap table.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

AngelList also partnered with SecondMarket to create an investment vehicle for these investments. That way, startups only have one entity in the cap table, which simplifies documentation and structure. Investors included Founders Fund, 500 Startups and Marc Cuban. 2011 Holiday. Gift Guide. Crunchboard.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Side Benefits Ideally, a small fund could get you the following, but you have to ask to make sure it’s available: Co-investing opportunities. Access to the partner. So what’s the point?

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

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

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

We each independently fell in love with enterprise software 20+ years ago as seed investors (cos like gotomeeting/Citrix, greenplum/EMC, livperson/IPO LPSN) and founders (workmarket, onforce/Adecco, spinback/buddymedia/salesf0rce) and are now benefiting from the ecosystems, knowledge and network that we’ve collectively developed.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Dividend Institutional Investors 60

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

I had gone to high school with the founders in the Seattle area, and we had recently reconnected. My boss, Jen Grant , was an incredible manager, and Aaron Levie, the co-founder and CEO, was a fantastic partner on all things communications. I tried to get hired at Better Place and failed. Enter Box. They gave me a shot.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

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

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also. worked as advisors and mentors to numerous early stage founders and startups. The one our team was particularly excited about was a concept we were calling at the time “Venture Acceleration Partners.”

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

He and his co-founder were both PhD’s in applied math who believe they can make some serious inroads on next generation search. Then they had a five-year P&L statement, balance sheet, cash flow and cap table. asked the founder who had spent the time crafting the perfect plan. “On It’s dynamic. “So

Business Model 329

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 329

David Teten

JULY 12, 2017

I thought it might be helpful to provide transparency on how we and many of our VC peers think about optimizing the cap table for our companies. . First, a formal definition: According to Capital Dynamics , “Co-investments are direct investments in a company made alongside and on the same terms as a lead [General Partner].

Syndicate 60

Syndicate Syndication Institutional Investors LP 60

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. Attractive to founders in controversial sectors.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 28, 2014

This week, we present legendary angel investor Ron Conway (commonly referred to as the “ Godfather of Silicon Valley ”) and Marc Andreessen , a brilliant entrepreneur and co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. It really, really, really matters…who your [investor] partner is.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Venture Capital 67

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve talked with a number of software development shops who are eager to get into the business of cofounding companies, i.e., getting product revenue and equity instead of just consulting revenue. What are the terms of their relationship with the founder?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

But in business, you want a lot of partners. To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . In the private equity universe, most Partners have primary training as deal-makers, not as managers. See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Tech VC is a pretty mature marketplace--the players are known, the process is established, and so while relationship building might take time, usually you can estimate how long a deal will take with some accuracy (besides, of course, that it takes longer than the founder wants). You just don't know. 3) Find a flexible lead.

Cap Table 90

Cap Table Cofounder Valuation .Net 90

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Some of the best later-stage investors walk founders through an institutionalized “reverse” pitch. If you find yourself in the fortunate position of being oversubscribed, you’ll likely look to build the best investor base and find the right partners for your journey. How do you decide who you should have in your cap table?

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

(written by Philipp von dem Knesebeck , Managing Partner, Blue Future Partners (bluefp.com, @bluefutureteam ), and David Teten ). Based on this paper, Blue Future Partners and PEVCTech recently completed a large-scale survey to find out which tools are most commonly used by venture capital firms.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

venturehacks.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

They don’t even try to get market price for their investment; they limit their holdings to leave the founders enough stock to feel the company is still theirs.” The top firms are mainly in the business of making money for their limited partners by picking the startups that are going to succeed with or without their value add.

Equity 40

Equity Cap Table Valuation RSS 40

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

That’s how it feels when your hot deal from two years ago winds up running low on cash and gets into a pay-to-play round that wipes out the cap table. Chetan Puttangunta from Benchmark responded by highlighting the sheer effort of one of one of his colleagues: “My partner Peter Fenton is the best board director I’ve ever worked with.

Non-Compete 97

Non-Compete Cofounder Cap Table Reputation 97

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann Miura-Ko is a founding partner at Floodgate , a seed-stage VC firm. She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. There were none in the firm, so I remember asking him if he knew of any general partners who were women in the Boston area.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

These funds would regularly share deal flow with one another and could share the work in supporting founders and helping to push the company forward. This post will try to describe why this is happening and what repercussions are for founders and investors. Is This is Good or Bad for Founders?

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

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

NZ Entrepreneur

JULY 12, 2018

We often see single founders slogging it out on their own. Founders can be reluctant to give up equity and control of their idea to bring in a co-founder alongside them to share in the decision making, as well as the highs and lows. My own father had difficulties with partners in his business. It’s tough.

Cofounder 44

Cofounder Founder Vesting Cap Table 44

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. The Perils of Many. That’s a different story.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

I've known Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, CEO and Head of Community at Airbnb for a long time. A complete collapse of revenue that simultaneously affects your employees and your customers, your partners, your investors, everyone all at once and all the news is bad. Your customers and your investors like partners?

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Update : Check out our $9 cap table which calculates the effect of the option pool shuffle on your effective valuation. Do you mean the shares go to the founders? What if the founder already included an option pool in the existing shares outstanding? share to $1.00/share: Or we can just do 10% standard terms.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 23, 2023

Our participation in Anchor ( later acquired by Spotify ) generated both a return and a friendship between us and the founders. Specifically I’ve had the chance to spend meaningful time over the years with Michael Mignano as he went from startup CEO to Executive/Angel Investor and now VC Partner at Lightspeed. Was I right?

Founder 88

Founder Angel Investor Cap Table Distribution 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

Just before the IPO, I had a far-reaching conversation with co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong as he approached this major milestone for the company he co-founded back in 2012. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase. So I've been able to move to another location with my partner and another city, I should say.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

Haystack

DECEMBER 28, 2019

The result is more startups, more money and firms to fund it, and an increasing belief that access to technology-related equity (either as a founder, employee, or investor) must become increasingly democratized or rebalanced as a result of the compounding effects at scale we are now witnessing. 3/ The Streaming Media Effect.

China 146

China Startup Lock-up Period Cap Table 146