VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

It was a benefit to employees and a slight value transfer from equity holders to option holders (generally speaking in M&A transactions the value of the aggregate option exercise ends up allocated across the rest of the cap table). Similarly I assumed that later stage companies would also show a smaller gap. I was wrong.

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

VC Adventure

MAY 10, 2020

The program allows businesses with fewer than 500 employees to apply for low-interest loans to pay for their payroll, rent, and utilities. Particularly confusing to many companies was the statement that companies needed to consider whether they had alternative financing options.

SBA 79

SBA Affiliate Los Angeles Cap Table 79

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

From the perspective of my outside friends, why are employees that so clearly impact the growth trajectory of a company look like they’re getting screwed? Cap tables sound intimidating. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. That is your opportunity cost.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

As more growth and crossover investors came into the startup ecosystem they were often eager to put capital to work and happy to consolidate their positions with common or preferred shares from early employees, founders and previous investors. We’re aligned with the founders and the rest of the cap table until we aren’t.

Venture Capital 122

Venture Capital Cap Table LP Equity 122

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

This should be clearly spelled out in your Capitalization Table , or “Cap Table” as it’s commonly called. A Cap Table shows who owns the company, what the ownership shares are, and what the owners have invested in exchange for that share. Can they create and advise on a Capitalization Table?

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

Morality aside, I’d say given the inherent riskiness of startups, I’m not sure this would be a great addition to your cap table. I’m a straight white dude who grew up in NYC and worked in finance. If prospective employees didn’t do this kind of research before, they almost certainly will now. Drug kingpin?

Cap Table 163

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 163

Berkonomics

MARCH 8, 2012

When you seek professional investors, whether organized angels or venture capitalists, one of the early questions you are asked is “How have you financed the business so far?” Investors love to see entrepreneurs who have used their own money to ignite their businesses. But often, entrepreneurs turn to others for initial capital.

Cap Table 74

Cap Table Private Placement SEC Accredited Investor 74

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. The mode purpose for funding is (in order of frequency) Sales, Marketing, Market Expansion, Product Development, and Hiring Employees. “ You qualify if you have $5k+ MRR. Bigfoot Capital. Decathlon Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Point Nine Capital uses 15Five for continuous employee feedback. Some notable metrics are revenue growth rates, free cashflow, leverage ratios, historical financing amounts, returns on marketing spend, customer acquisition costs, lifetime value of customers, customer churn rates, and team social scores.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Instead, the dead equity languishes on the cap table, weighing down the startup and making it harder to attract and motivate the people who could impact its growth.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

Every company I meet these days is grappling with this topic, from ESG to employee activism, to so much more. And of course, we started putting together a plan about how we might evacuate or get out of the office for day-to-day work and how we might start to provide services to employees. Highlights from the Show: What is Coinbase? (:33)

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

Haystack

DECEMBER 17, 2019

4/ Competitive Financings: As is the case with most breakouts, there was a competitive financing for the company in 2019, ultimately led by a16z. That is not to say this matters at the end of the day, but it adds to the buzz and intrigue for any fledgling company to breakout from its initial fans into more mainstream discussions.

Cap Table 113

Cap Table Finance Database Software 113

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

To begin answering this question, I started on a quest to understand startup financing. This book was written to help founders negotiate financing with investors, but it really helped me understand Keen’s financial situation, and I highly recommend it to anyone joining a startup. Startup Equity for Early Employees.

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Your Cap Table is something that deserves constant care and attention. Startups often hand out shares, options, and warrants for employees and for contractors rendering needed services. Messy cap tables can come back to haunt you when you do a financing or sell the company.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 2, 2021

This “gain” ($34B last year alone) is a result of a direct wealth-transfer to these individuals FROM the previous owners of the company — founders, executives, employees, and venture investors. The founders, the CEO, the CFO, the executives, the employees, and the venture investors. Party B: The investment banks. Interestingly, the 7.5X

IPO 82

IPO Customer Matching Silicon Valley 82

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

For example, let’s say Exec X is asking for 10% of the fully diluted cap table via a stock grant or option grant that is non-dilutable. He is asking for 10% because he is joining as a high level officer like CEO or COO and he is a very early employee. It is legally possible to grant non-dilution via a contractual right.

Dilution 53

Dilution Employee Cap Table Stock 53

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Instead, the dead equity languishes on the cap table, weighing down the startup and making it harder to attract and motivate the people who could impact its growth.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

West coast founders now fully understand why having a NYC investor on their cap table pays huge dividends and west coast VCs are regularly leading Series A and B rounds in NYC. We continue to have the courage to be first on your cap table and the conviction to move swiftly to close rounds.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Dividend Institutional Investors 60

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. All Unicorn participants — founders, company employees, venture investors and their limited partners (LPs) — are seeing their fortunes put at risk from the very nature of the Unicorn phenomenon itself. By January of 2016, that number had ballooned to 229.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Eventually, I joined Jenny Lefcourt in the initiative called Founders for Change, where we’re amplifying the voices of the founders who are demanding greater representation and diversity not only within their organization, their cap table, and their board rooms, but also in terms of the makeup of all of these organizations.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Diversification Finance 101 would tell you that, in the public market, you want to be in at least 20-30 names to eliminate a good chunk of the risk (as defined by the standard deviation of return) that you don’t actually get paid for. I’m sure you’re very smart and very experienced. So is everyone else.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Two founders works because unanimity is possible, there are no founder politics, interests can easily align, and founder stakes are high post-financing. The best sellers can sell to customers, partners, investors, and employees. All our products Pitching Hacks , Cap Table , and Co-founder Interview. Date first.

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

I wont bother going into details on start-up financing terms ( see this post for an overview of typical VC terms) except to say if you dont know and understand: the firms cap table and valuation. My post looks at this from the consultant/employee point of view. Not all start-up stock is created equally. Good point.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. NOTE: If youre an attorney or tax accountant with experience helping startup employees with stock and option issues, drop me a note. The preferred stock held by investors has (as the name implies) more rights and privileges than the common stock issued to employees. From Payne.org Wiki. 3 Dilution.

Equity 56

Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Or they bring you a handful of great employees. They’ll bring you leads for customers, employees, and investors. Or you can just “burn the boats at the shore&# and give the advisory shares to the investor with the agreement that he will invest a minimum amount in the financing. Or they raise your money for you.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

Box had just 50 employees and was hitting an inflection point when I joined in 2009, so there was far more work to do than people to do it. The first was in July of 2014, when we made the unusual move of raising and announcing another round of private financing while on file to go public. They gave me a shot.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

Rob Go

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

Apart from the founders and employees of the company, Sequoia Capital was the big winner, and that was recognized by everyone. This financing probably came out the Sequoia US Venture fund and Growth fund, which are separate entities, but I believe represent a pool of capital somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.2B.

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Valuation Finance Institutional Investors 78

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Plus, you’ll have surprise decisions every day based on the actions of customers or employees or occasionally some externality. If you do eventually expose your company to those professionals, all your dumb shareholders will get crushed in the new cap table.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Austin PR Founder 48

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

I’m sure you’ll start seeing some rounds that essentially should be B rounds according to what the current cap table looks like, except that there’s a Series A level of progress, and about a million bucks in product overspend that didn’t really lead to a business. Once you have that, keep your focus simple. Try to prove one thing.

Cap Table 106

Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Reading on, the term sheet states, “The $8 million pre-money valuation includes an option pool equal to 20% of the post-financing fully diluted capitalization.&# As your lawyer explains that the so-called pre-money valuation always includes a large unallocated option pool for new employees, your stomach sinks. share to $1.00/share:

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

This can be a convenient shortcut to separate someone’s status (founder) from their role (employee or contractor or advisor, etc.) However, founder agreements are not set in stone and it is common for them to be tweaked by a little or a lot during the first financing by professional investors. Which founder agreement? more details ].

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44