This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

While they might be generally smart, they’re unsophisticated investors who don’t know what the market is for where you are. They try to sign simple, market-standard deals, keeping the bells and whistles to a minimum while focusing on just a few critical deal points that are most likely to move the needle on their returns.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 20, 2023

And, over-fundraising can trigger a domino effect of complications, from cap-table issues to inflated valuations, which can ruin future fundraising. By remaining adaptable and responsive to feedback and market trends, I was able to make timely adjustments to my strategies and offerings. Thanks to Dmitrii Kustov, RegexSeo ! #13-

Entrepreneur 76

Entrepreneur Cap Table Dividend Cofounder 76

Eric Friedman

NOVEMBER 18, 2022

I have been on both sides of the cap table of advisors. An example here is Shaq taking 1% of Ring and doing major endorsement deals and marketing. Having them on your cap table, or even in your slide deck as an advisor would bring you credibility.] These advisors are somewhere in the 1%-3% range.

Early Stage 103

Early Stage Equity Vesting Cap Table 103

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

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2014

15 years ago we were at the peak of Internet hype with the launch of many over-capitalized businesses with a market size & opportunity was limited. The VC market has right-sized (returned back to mid 90′s levels & less competition). But markets value high growth over short-term profitability. Where are we today?

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Venture Capital Valuation Pre-Money Valuation 398

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 31, 2021

Fund people/ideas ahead of consensus — that is, find founders and markets that aren’t currently being chased by the mainstream and get to conviction ahead of the pack. If you can be more valuable than that, I’d love to bring you on to the cap table of the next seed round we lead. Close the fun and get to work.

Cap Table 122

Cap Table Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 122

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 18, 2016

Customer and market interaction. This element is usually called technical due diligence and typically consists of a day with your engineering and marketing team led by internal team leaders. Be prepared to present a detailed cap table, identifying by percentage all owners, investors and debtors.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Cap Table Intellectual Property 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

2) Marketing. See How Private Equity and VC Investors Are Using Social Media. We also use Carta , which specializes in cap table management and has just launched a fund administration service which we have transitioned to. See How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2018

2) Marketing. See How Private Equity and VC Investors Are Using Social Media. We also use Carta , which specializes in cap table management and has just launched a fund administration service which we have transitioned to. See How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood. .

Technical Review 60

Technical Review Private Equity Management Cap Table 60

Hunter Walker

MAY 13, 2023

Those who do, often believe they can hire from the open market without the hassle of an acquisition. Cash is at a premium so it’s not going to cap tables (preferred or common walk away from the deals with no dinero). Not in today’s market conditions. Again, not really in this market. Emotional I guess.

Early Stage 117

Early Stage Cap Table Acquisition Sales 117

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. Soft Acquisition Market. Whatever gets reported is just the tip of the iceberg.

Portfolio 98

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 98

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

The value ascribed by subsequent investors (in a secondary); buyers (acquisition); or the public markets (IPO). Market share and user growth often prioritized over profitability, leading to a focus on next round optics and unicorn-sized exits in spite of failure risk. Volatile, uncapped. Flexible VC: Revenue -based. Retain 100%.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Markets like these are very kind to angel investors because you get taken out early and see a nice pop on your investment. I know some people think the whole market has been disrupted and startups and funding work differently these days. Total disruption on the funding market? This is actually the norm. I doubt it.

Cap Table 283

Cap Table Angel Investor Liquidation Preference Deal Flow 283

Haystack

SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

And when it comes to fundraising advice, the investment market itself offers the best advice. This is made worse by our own human impulses to seek out sources who will say what we want to hear. Ultimately, 99% of those sources are noise.

Cap Table 110

Cap Table Marketing Early Stage Founder 110

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

When you raise money from investors you produce information that you are told they want and care about: A fund-raising deck that articulates your company strategy, plans, team, market, competitors and so forth. I never thought of this until I became the Founder & CEO of my first startup company. So how does this work in practice?

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

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 will die on the hill that life is too short to have misogynistic asshats on your cap table—even if it takes you longer to fundraise. Drug kingpin?

Cap Table 163

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 163

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

What Happens When TikTok Is Your Marketing Department [David Segal/New York Times] – Was it organic? Equally important, it also protects you if your co-founders aren’t the right fit early on – you don’t want someone leaving two years into building your company with the lion’s share of the cap table.

Founder Vesting 59

Founder Vesting Vesting Cap Table Founder 59

OnlyOnce

OCTOBER 28, 2021

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. In fact, at our peak of 500 people, the company employed one email marketer and therefore had one user of our own product.

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Early Stage Cofounder Leadership 62

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

And I am also bullish on the future as I firmly believe that market downturns are crucibles for the most resilient, ambitious, and creative founders to bring inspiring ideas and changes to life. At NextView, we are very much open for business and actively supporting founders across the spectrum of seed.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

And while I’m quite optimistic about the coming years, we’re not yet through the pain for many existing companies navigating the transition from a hypergrowth market to one which rewards a different style of operating. When $20B outcomes occur everyone on the cap table eats well. Gotta own enough of your winners.

Cap Table 93

Cap Table Valuation Salary Seed Stage 93

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

You can’t underestimate the importance of selecting an attorney who “gets” your business model, your market opportunity, and most importantly, your fundraising and exit strategy. This should be clearly spelled out in your Capitalization Table , or “Cap Table” as it’s commonly called.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

VC Adventure

AUGUST 15, 2018

As is true today, there was a requirement that options be priced at or above the “fair market value” of the underlying stock (otherwise there would be tax consequences to the optionee and sometimes to the company as well).

Valuation 48

Valuation Common Stock Cap Table Software Review 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. The more senior members you have (say you already have a CEO, CTO, VP marketing, VP Biz Dev, VP Products) then the less options you’ll need and vice versa.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

Gust

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

Parts of the answer are that (a) there are enormous regulatory requirements relating to secondary markets, and (b) there are no analysts tracking private company stocks.

Seed Stage 131

Seed Stage Hockey Stick Cap Table Liquidation Preference 131

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

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

While VC deals remain marketed on a pre-money basis, sophisticated investors know that what matters most is the post-money (how much of the company will I own after all of the new shares have been issued). The most serious unintended consequence occurs from “note waterfalls”— converting multiple notes that have multiple valuation caps.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Are they consistent with your founding team, are they competitive in the market, and will they not create precedents that you’ll regret in the next round of hiring? 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

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

Operating in a technology market that most would consider nascent, she had encountered a variety of responses to her pitch. “We sat down to discuss my company and he basically said, ‘I don’t think your market is going to exist. Especially during fundraising. Convince me.'” ” Her response? She was right.

Founder 126

Founder Cap Table Conversion Operations 126

Gust

OCTOBER 8, 2014

I have come to realize that since the great tech boom started in 2009 and given the massive increase in first-time angels, first-time seed funds, first-time accelerators … the market is just filled with well-intentioned, but inexperience advice. It is less about actual money and more about structure of your Cap Table.

Cap Table 136

Cap Table Silicon Valley Term Sheet Non-Compete 136

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Or ask your cap table who is the best “XYZ” that they know and give them some skin in the game. My POV is: a) You’re hiring the type of person with very high ceiling before the rest of the market potentially realizes it. If there’s someone in industry she really admires but doesn’t yet know, reach out to them on her behalf.

Hiring 60

Hiring Cap Table Equity Dividend 60

Hunter Walker

JUNE 14, 2018

Information, relationships, pattern matching for marketplaces, SaaS, financial services, agriculture, media, etc etc – our backgrounds and/or portfolio suggest that we might have ability to help the founders move faster and with greater accuracy in testing their market hypotheses.

Cap Table 81

Cap Table Portfolio Vertical Reputation 81

Gust

JANUARY 30, 2014

Large and growing market. Viable business structure and cap table. Real domain expertise. Provable product need. Scalable business model. Competitive advantage. Platform/partnership/bizd ev/API strategy. External validation (ideally traction and/or passionate customers). Reasonable valuation.

Cap Table 119

Cap Table API Valuation Startup 119

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

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. How does our timeframe change as market conditions change? Facebook’s situation is far from unique, even among recent tech IPOs.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

In these cases, the equation is basically unsolvable and doing a round with a venture investor risks entangling the founders in endless meetings and conference calls with their angel backers to find a compromise that will allow them essentially to rewrite their cap table.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 21, 2022

“When starting on the journey of bringing an idea to life you will probably think you have the best idea in the world, and nothing in the market will be able to compete with your product once completed.” Don’t underestimate how difficult it is to enter a new market and how hard your competitors will work to keep you out of it.

Founder 88

Founder Cap Table Cofounder New Zealand 88

Haystack

OCTOBER 7, 2018

The opportunities for these new funds are endless. Time will tell how this shakes out. The larger firms have gotten much bigger and taken on multi-strategy techniques, but they’re also very experienced in managing funds across many vintages.

Cap Table 147

Cap Table Venture Capital Portfolio Pay to Play 147

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Only Jason’s was in the “hard pivot” category that Fred describes (“Changing the product, market, and business entirely. And most recently, Jason’s, which he describes in the link above. All three were very much the right decision. Essentially starting over from scratch.”)

Founder 96

Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 96