David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund and mutual fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. High-frequency trading, algorithmic by its nature, is estimated to account for at least 50% of US equity markets trading volume. . But we’re doing it slowly.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Most of my research is also relevant to private equity. Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . See How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood. . 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

Most of my research is also relevant to private equity. Just as with any company, the most important issue is the team; see “ How to Negotiate a Partner Role at a Venture Capital or Private Equity Firm “ . See How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood. . 3) Raise capital.

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 13, 2013

When raising money from investors (angels or VC), it is critical to have a presentable and clean cap table. On a fully diluted pre-money basis, that would mean the option pool represents 14.5% (356,758/2,456,758) of the cap table. times more equity than Founder X. Well, that is really up to Founder X and Founder Y.

Cap Table 67

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Liquidation Preference 67

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

On the other hand, they could be the opposite—much more focused on near-term cash distributions than long-term equity appreciation. This is a business and the goal should be to get the best people at every position, regardless of their position on the cap table. I get that you want to play baseball but do that on your own time.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Choe opted to forgo a cash payment “in the thousands” for the equity equivalent at the time. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

VC Adventure

OCTOBER 8, 2012

This is typically reflected on cap tables in a completely separate tab to the spreadsheet that shows the debt total by investor and then some kind of interest calculation. The problem, of course, is that their convert is already a part of their capitalization – even though it’s not reflected on the cap table.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Dilution Equity Deal Structure 93

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

—————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Choe opted to forgo a cash payment “in the thousands” for the equity equivalent at the time. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

View from Seed

AUGUST 6, 2015

When someone goes to work for an early startup, the compensation package general includes an annual salary, health insurance, and, instead of fixed-cost performance upside, a percentage of unvested options to purchase equity in the company. It falls on the hiring company to thoroughly explain equity options to their new employees.

Equity 120

Equity Employee Cap Table Stock Options 120

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Working for Equity Instead of Cash. has an article on service firms waiving their fees and instead taking equity in their clients. Interest in this waned when the Internet bust resulted in most tech start-up equity becoming worthless, but it seems to be coming back. Not all start-up stock is created equally.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 2, 2017

The total value of these deals might look higher than when a tech company makes an acquihire but the premium tends to go to retention rather than the cap table (especially since (a) the acquirer might not be seen as an ‘attractive’ place to work and (b) there’s assumption of less equity upside post-acquisition).

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Cap Table Acquisition Startup 115

VC Adventure

OCTOBER 8, 2012

This is typically reflected on cap tables in a completely separate tab to the spreadsheet that shows the debt total by investor and then some kind of interest calculation. The problem, of course, is that their convert is already a part of their capitalization – even though it’s not reflected on the cap table.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Dilution Equity Deal Structure 48

OnlyOnce

JULY 30, 2020

Sometimes you can have a major internal problem related to the cap table–a founder with a lot of stock needs liquidity or you need to push this person out of the company.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Institutional Investors Startup Early Stage 48

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

This structure offers some of the benefits of traditional equity VC, without some of the negatives of equity VC. I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. We agree on a Return Cap which is a multiple of the initial investment (typically 3-5x). “We

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

Bigger/better advisors who get more equity have things like; excellent domain expertise to help you avoid pitfalls, deep connections within the industry to help with the intros, partnerships, and more. As a potential advisor looking to get involved with the company; MORE EQUITY! This leaves plenty of room for a final 4th advisor for

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Also, during the process, we had to clean up the company’s cap table and make sure that we all agreed on who owned what on a pro forma pre-money basis. Without having a complete pre-money cap table, it is impossible to calculate a share price. Sometimes those issues take extra time to resolve.

Term Sheet 58

Term Sheet Cap Table Technical Review IP 58

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

Most boards did some level of work to determine the FMV of a company’s stock but generally options were priced between 10% and 15% of a company’s then preferred price (because common equity sits behind preferred equity there is typically a discount applied to the FMV of common stock to account for this “overhang”).

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

As Jared notes, To hedge against this predictable outcome, more founders should adopt longer vesting cycles for themselves and the earliest (big equity) employees. Stretching things out to a six-year vest helps to prevent co-founder abandonment. That sucks for everyone.

Founder Vesting 59

Founder Vesting Vesting Cap Table Founder 59

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Unfortunately, what the CEO/founder forgets most often is that the notes have a multiplier effect in the post-money calculation; the more notes and the further the cap is from the new priced equity, the greater the variance between actual and nominal pre- and post-money valuations. It’s going to be great!”.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. and then asking to take a brochure home with you.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2014

You''re not a development shop that takes equity. Others talked as if they were the ones doing the deals--even though they''re just the ones making the cap tables in Excel. To me, the absolute minimum criteria has to be that you work for a venture capital fund. This means you have a pool of money. You''re not a broker.

Venture Capital 140

Venture Capital Cap Table Startup Early Stage 140

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

To provide relevant perspective, listing past convertible note(s) and/or equity financing(s) including total round size and valuation (caps) is helpful. Previous venture firms’ specific involvement on the cap table should be noted here, though. First, it’s helpful to enumerate the startup’s funding history to date.

Cap Table 211

Cap Table Seed Stage Valuation Dilution 211

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Ask her if there’s someone senior in her career that’s been a great manager, and if so, bring them on as an equity-compensated advisor to your company. Or ask your cap table who is the best “XYZ” that they know and give them some skin in the game. You’re still ‘saving’ equity from the pool.

Hiring 60

Hiring Cap Table Equity Dividend 60

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

Would you take a check from a corporate raider whose private equity dollars come with mass layoffs and union-busting? 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. What about someone who made their money running a for-profit prison? Drug kingpin?

Cap Table 163

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 163

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

This is all incorporated into a document called a Cap Table. . A cap table will help you in the strategic management of business decisions. Wondering what a cap table is, its importance, and how you can maintain it to expand your business? What is a cap table? Let’s dive in.

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

My experience with early valuations by founders for friends… I’ve arrived at a significant number of companies that were looking for additional growth capital after a “friends and family” round and had to “clean up” the cap table more than a few times over the years. Many accelerators have come and gone during these past five years.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

VC Adventure

MAY 10, 2020

That rule was designed to prevent companies under common ownership from accessing SBA funds, but as it applied to PPP, it potentially excluded any venture-backed companies where venture firms owned greater than 20% equity (and where the companies were not affiliated, they just shared a common investor). Exactly what this means isn’t clear.

SBA 79

SBA Affiliate Los Angeles Cap Table 79

OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Are you way under market in compensation and trying to overcome that by offering equity or “perks” to attract top talent? Another telltale sign that you might need a CFO is more tangible: Are you spending too much of your own time managing fundraising, debt, investors, and cap table questions and issues?

Hiring 117

Hiring Cap Table Finance Equity 117

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

For example: Don’t accept equity compensation (stock shares) without knowing the percentage of the company you’ll own. From there, I began googling things like “first employee startup equity” and “startup offer negotiation.” These were the best resources I found: Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups. Let’s go home.”

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Sometimes you’d even get lucky and receive stock in the acquirer, which was how I gained pre-IPO equity in high growth stars like Pinterest and Facebook. Cash is at a premium so it’s not going to cap tables (preferred or common walk away from the deals with no dinero). of the time my answer is no f **g way].

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

Hunter Walker

JULY 18, 2021

All in all it worked out fine, driven primary by some fortunate acquisitions to companies like Microsoft, Pinterest and Facebook, the latter two in pre-IPO equity which grew substantially prior to their public listings. I never really tracked IRR or net returns, but I did pay close attention to ‘lessons learned.’ Ok, now that half-mistake….

Cap Table 140

Cap Table IRR Angel Investor IPO 140

Hippoland

APRIL 10, 2016

We are trying to decide how much equity to allocate to each person. I would like to split the equity equally, since it seems only fair. But, Ada wants to split the equity 50% her, 20% Bob and 20% me with a 10% option pool. Super active, hands-on advisors are typically granted < 5%.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Cap Table Equity Vesting 48

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

In many cases we have observed, the founders have given away too much equity to their first investors — typically angels and family offices, who have little experience with fast-growing startups or the venture capital funding model. Of course, not all of the fault in these lopsided structures lies with the angel investors.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

But by far the biggest issue is that the very essence of public markets (and what makes them “public”) is that the SEC mandates an enormous amount of transparency, including complete quarterly financial statements, complete publication of the company’s cap table including all significant shareholders, and so forth.

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131

David Teten

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

I wrote recently about Should you raise venture capital from a traditional equity VC or a Revenue-Based Investing VC? Some firms provide tools to do this online, e.g., Capital ’s Cost of Equity estimator ; Lighter Capital’s Cost of Capital Calculator ; 645 Ventures’ cap table simulator. Revenue-based investing VC.

SBIC 60

SBIC SBA Cap Table Database 60

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

They’re looking to be paid properly in the context of the overall salary structure, including cash, benefits, and equity, and to be paid commensurate with performance. Your Cap Table is something that deserves constant care and attention. 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