ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Here is the latest edition of Finance Fridays from Brad Feld called “Introducing the Cap Table and CTO” Every startup needs someone to be in charge of the Cap Table. That person is typically the inside finance person, but it does not really matter who so long is it is always current.

Cap Table 49

Cap Table Finance Option Pool Warrant 49

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

At the time, this is last quarter and the stock market has trended upwards nicely since then (a potential leading indicator of private tech valuations), we all agreed venture portfolios were probably still 25-40% overvalued. And fascinating new advances (and needs) in AI, climate, biology, etc are driving tech-IP driven startups.

Portfolio 99

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 99

Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Most startup founders do not have enough capital to launch their companies and need to raise money at some point. Individual investors who provide financial funding to startups are called ‘Angel Investors.’ Convertible Debt Financing. Convertible debt provides startups with a relatively easy way to procure financing.

Finance 93

Finance Accredited Investor Angel Investor Seed Capital 93

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2014

Like inside bridge rounds where investors want to protect themselves from the company getting sold prior to the next financing and leaving the bridge funding without adequate returns. A founder wants his co-founder to leave and the stock agreement says you can take all of his unvested stock back and wants you as the VC to be the bad guy.

Cap Table 346

Cap Table Cofounder Stock Acquisition 346

keen.io

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

How I negotiated my startup compensation. When I started thinking about joining Keen, I quickly realized there is a lot I don’t know about startups. For example: Don’t accept equity compensation (stock shares) without knowing the percentage of the company you’ll own. I knew enough to know I wanted to join a startup.

Salary 50

Salary Equity Startup San Francisco 50

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

View from Seed

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Over the summer, based on feedback from our portfolio and the broader startup community, NextView created pre-formatted board deck templates for seed-stage startups — part of our Growth Guides series. Finance is mission critical, for instance – it just appears on a recurring basis.

Seed Stage 331

Seed Stage Cap Table Metrics Burn Rate 331

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

August 20, 2017: This is another in my series of posts all leading up to a book on Startup Decision Making. One of the most common mistakes I see in startups is making decisions that lose sight of the context , including the past, present, and future. Sooner or later everybody in a startup knows what everyone else is getting paid.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

And as the company grows, it brings on new people and may decide to issue stock options to attract new staff and funding from investors. This is all incorporated into a document called a Cap Table. . A cap table will help you in the strategic management of business decisions. What is a cap table?

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

Thanks to that one decision, he owns nearly four million shares of stock, worth in excess of $100 million. Choe’s equity is a headline-grabbing example of “dead equity”: equity owned by people who are no longer actively working for the startup. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

ithacaVC

APRIL 5, 2011

I am a huge fan of simple cap tables. A cap table is a written record (in Excel, for example) of who owns stock in your company. It lists every owner out by amount owned, type of stock (common or preferred), and date purchased. It also lists out option holders and warrant holders.

Common Stock 45

Common Stock Stock Cap Table Preferred Stock 45

genylabs.typepad.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Planning, Startups, Stories. I often take stock in lieu of cash. I have a file drawer full of worthless stock certificates and I continue to add to it. Not all start-up stock is created equally. what kind of stock you are getting. where your stock sits in the liquidity preference stack. Small Business Blogs.

Equity 40

Equity Technical Review San Jose Stock 40

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

Thanks to that one decision, he owns nearly four million shares of stock, worth in excess of $100 million. Choe’s equity is a headline-grabbing example of “dead equity”: equity owned by people who are no longer actively working for the startup. Dead equity has always been a significant issue for startups.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

ithacaVC

FEBRUARY 1, 2018

It is highly typical for a startup to have small investors on its cap table. The treatment of the friends, family and angels (FFA) as the startup matures and raises larger rounds of financing over time is interesting. Startups often get stuck, restart, pivot/change/move, etc., Here is a quick guide.

Preemptive Right 45

Preemptive Right Cap Table Valuation Dilution 45

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

Much has changed in the past four months of the technology startup world and how outsiders value the business. We do this in our consumer lives with everything ranging from housing purchases to public stocks. Employees hate them because it’s hard to reset expectations that their stock is worth less. Why does this matter?

Burn Rate 150

Burn Rate Cap Table Balance Sheet Dilution 150

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder can self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

I have seen what I call “predatory advisors” come in and really mess up a cap table by promising big intros and sales contracts only to disappear after the first 6-12 months. The funny thing about these moves is that it ends up being bad all around, even though the advisor thinks they are getting a great deal.

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

Hunter Walk: Ok, so we first met when you were leading comms at enterprise software company Box, a startup you joined when they were still pretty early and stayed at until post-IPO. But for the first time since abandoning my law school plan A, my mandate was clear: I needed to work at a startup. First, congrats! Enter Box.

IPO 91

IPO Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 91

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 10, 2012

I recently got a question from a person in a large company who is thinking about joining a startup that expects to raise venture capital. But here is one that I want to focus on in this post: “Can I ask for undiluted stock (non dilution clause)?” Actually, I got many questions. But, the problems with doing so are numerous.

Dilution 53

Dilution Employee Cap Table Stock 53

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. 2 Stock Classes: Common and Preferred. 5 Stock vs Options. 6 Founders / Restricted Stock. The re-heating of the venture funded tech market has pushed a heat up of the hiring market, and Im getting more calls from friends asking for help understanding startup stock (equity) offers.

Equity 56

Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. Cap tables sound intimidating. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. “It kinda sucks to be engineer #1.”.

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

I have been thinking a lot recently about how to apply agile development principles to investing and key aspects of startup development such as team building. The first post is about agile startup fundraising. The follow-on post is about agile startup team building. If you’ve read and liked these posts, let others know.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. For more on gathering data and using it to assess companies, see How to Assess Startups Using Machine Learning. 2) Market . 8) Monitor .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Some businesses require very little capital and the founder is able to self-finance the enterprise and retain 100% of its ownership and control from ignition through liquidity event (startup through sale). And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

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

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Why the Unicorn Financing Market Just Became Dangerous…For All Involved. In February of last year, Fortune magazine writers Erin Griffith and Dan Primack declared 2015 “ The Age of the Unicorns ” noting — “Fortune counts more than 80 startups that have been valued at $1 billion or more by venture capitalists.”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Austin Startup

MAY 17, 2017

It’s pretty well known that startups usually undergo a meaningful change in Board composition at their Series A round. Less has been written about what startup boards tend to look like before a Series A round. Their interests as an investor are more aligned with the new VCs investing in the Series A than they are with the Common Stock.

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage Startup Cap Table Angel Investor 48

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. You get money, save stock, and amplify the advisor’s social proof in the process. 0.25% of a company’s post-Series A stock. Super advisors The super advisor can get as much stock as a board member: 1%-2% of a company’s post-Series A stock. Compensation 7.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. You explain that the company currently has 6M shares outstanding so the investors must be valuing the company’s stock at $1.33/share: Update : Check out our $9 cap table which calculates the effect of the option pool shuffle on your effective valuation. share to $1.00/share:

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

And of course, I wasn't really interested in the finance side of it to me. And the reason is, there's a bunch of reasons for this, but one of them is that doing a startup is just so difficult. Because usually the first couple of years of a startup are just moving from one setback to the next with enthusiasm. I'm curious.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113