Both Sides of the Table

JULY 7, 2015

If you have 8 well known, high quality angels with impeccable reputations then be as transparent as you like. If you have 50 investors on your cap table – I’m sorry but you really don’t know what the f**k they’re telling people about your company or whom they’re tell it to. I agree up to a point.

Cap Table 150

Cap Table Cofounder Silicon Valley Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

I don’t feel that as a VC sneaking in nefarious terms into a term sheet that the entrepreneur doesn’t understand is a good way to build a long-term relationship nor to build a long-term reputation but this does happen and more frequently than we all would like.

Valuation 405

Valuation Liquidation Preference Pre-Money Valuation Term Sheet 405

Hunter Walker

MARCH 14, 2019

All the disruption can be pretty jarring to an entrepreneur, especially in situations where the exiting partner represents the top line on your cap table. You’ll often need the support – both structurally and symbolically – of some other investors on the cap table to make the case for some of the ideas below to work.

Cap Table 95

Cap Table Dilution Silicon Valley Portfolio 95

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I’ve met several people from Cooley Godward who have stellar reputations in this category. They have a stellar reputation and know how to work with the earliest of starts with entrepreneurs. I already mentioned DLA Piper. I know Mike Lincoln in Washington DC does. I worked with Sam Angus at Fenwick & West.

Southern California 318

Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

Hunter Walker

JUNE 14, 2018

But Homebrew is founded upon the belief that we’ll put sweat and reputation behind your startup, not just a wire transfer, so to me it seems like a normal question to help understand if you need things that we can, or can’t, provide. The answers I receive typically fall across four categories: 1.

Cap Table 81

Cap Table Portfolio Vertical Reputation 81

OnlyOnce

JULY 26, 2018

Your win might not be sustainable, and you’ve put your reputation at risk. Or you negotiate the highest possible valuation from a new lead investor, only to discover that new lead investor, now on your Board, expects you to triple it in four years and is way out of alignment with the rest of your cap table.

Cap Table 61

Cap Table Lead Investor Valuation Reputation 61

Hunter Walker

APRIL 24, 2017

Four years into Homebrew , we’re fortunate to feel really good about our relationships and reputations — you live and die by those in our business. When we do “miss” an opportunity there are two main causes: 1. What can we do in these situations?

Cap Table 71

Cap Table LP Seed Stage Vertical 71

OnlyOnce

JULY 26, 2018

Your win might not be sustainable, and you’ve put your reputation at risk. Or you negotiate the highest possible valuation from a new lead investor, only to discover that new lead investor, now on your Board, expects you to triple it in four years and is way out of alignment with the rest of your cap table.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Lead Investor Valuation Reputation 48

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 27, 2017

Founder hostile” VCs are problematic because they push for the perspective of institutional investors to override those of all the other constituents on the cap table. The proper balance is, of course, in the middle; where the VCs with the best reputations operate. Be transparent about your goals, incentives, and plans.

Founder 48

Founder Cap Table Preferred Stock Common Stock 48

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. If an advisor is confident they can add value (and you have a reputation as a fair dealer), these aren’t unreasonable asks.

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I was surprised on two levels – the first is that they have a very visible anti-seed reputation. I pointed out that their market reputation was that they didn’t do seed investments nor did they do many Series A investments. I thought this was a pretty clever way to deal with this issue.

Cap Table 134

Cap Table Reputation Finance Programming 134

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 10, 2016

Many founders realize the hard way that reputations of many "top" VCs are little more than smoke and mirrors. If you're going to take someone onto your cap table you should talk to other people that VC has invested in. You don't want to see your main VCs go out of business while you're still running your company.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Limited Partner LP Reputation 60

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. I stress that the offer is from a real investor with a good reputation. It lists every owner out by amount owned, type of stock (common or preferred), and date purchased.

Common Stock 45

Common Stock Stock Cap Table Preferred Stock 45

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

Less than that and you need something else to bring to the table. b) Reputation for adding value. For your resume to make you a desirable addition to a cap table, not only does it need to stand out, but people need to know about it. I’m sure you’re very smart and very experienced. So is everyone else.

Portfolio 134

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 134

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 Limited Partner 60

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. I’ve summarized the descriptions in the table below, but a few trends stood out to me—my favorite being that it took a lot of work and wasn’t easy. But I thought I was good!?”

Non-Compete 97

Non-Compete Cofounder Cap Table Reputation 97

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 13, 2019

I have a portfolio where 50% of the investments have founders that come from diverse backgrounds—and yes, I want them to get money from all of the still-active funds on Uber’s cap table that benefitted from the IPO.

Cap Table 116

Cap Table Portfolio IPO Reputation 116

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

But taken to the extreme, you would have rounds with only one lead and almost no one else on the cap table. Investors will need to shift more and more of their efforts to building direct relationships with founders much earlier in their journey, and building a reputation of trust well before a fundraise begins.

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

Haystack

DECEMBER 17, 2019

It exploits social networks and reputations at work for using the most cutting-edge tools. Email is a tool nearly everyone uses daily, across devices, from their personal to work life — obviously. There are many reasons for this. Better software can make work feel fun. It can save time. It can be accounted for as a business expense.

Cap Table 113

Cap Table Finance Database Software 113

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

It usually happens in a later round, when the company is in fact worth much less than the liquidation preference overhang and insiders use a pay-to-play and a low valuation to reset the preferences and the cap table. And developing a reputation for recapping seed rounds is, in my book, silly.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

One of the dangers of taking investment from individual angels,rather than through an angel group or investment firm, is that theyhave less reputation to protect. 5 ] Another danger of less known firms is that, like angels, they haveless reputation to protect.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Vesting 76

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

You can no longer simply look at the cap table and estimate your return. They use the reputation of the other investors as a proxy for due diligence. They didn’t call you before when they built their reputation. The adjustment does not happen now, it will happen later. First, these investors are “pot committed.”

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Valuation Silicon Valley 40

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

Eric Ries : An indelible part of your reputation and this is laying the foundation for whatever the future of this company is going to be. A lot of people are literally doing if for their brand reputation but they didn't. But we'll build tools, we'll build reputation systems, we'll build flags, and the community will moderate itself.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

And entrepreneurs are working hard to make sure they have as many VC names and famous angels on their cap table for signaling value. They don’t do this because a VC has to protect its reputation with other VCs so sending others your problems isn’t going to win them over for more important deals.

Strategic Investors 312

Strategic Investors Los Angeles Cap Table Startup 312