Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth?

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

SoCal CTO

MARCH 2, 2015

As the organizer of the LA CTO Forum , I get lots of inquiries by job seekers and people looking for CTO / VP Engineering talent. I’ve written quite a bit about aspects of this topic, especially from the perspective of startup founders looking for talent – you can find these in: Startup CTO.

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Technical Cofounder Los Angeles CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 150

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

Jane and Dick, our fearless cofounders of SayAhh, have set up an accounting system and created their first set of financial statements. This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years. Praveena wants to invest $20,000 and get 20% equity.

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The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

There are a lot of variables to go into calculating a fair equity split a startup team. If people are funding the business, they should get a premium because at the end of the day, cash funding founders are acting no different than a seed stage investor. You can follow George on Twitter at @georgedeeb and @RedRocketVC.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Equity 258

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

However, the biggest mistake that a non-tech entrepreneur launching a tech business is to neglect bringing on a tech savvy co-founder on the management team. In order to be a successful tech startup, the team must consist of a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) level member to help with the technology plan.

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CTO Hire Fractional CTO Architecture Cofounder 55

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 11, 2021

Honor Technology, Inc. , the world’s largest senior care network and technology platform which recently acquired global home care provider Home Instead , today announced it has raised $70 million in Series E funding and $300 million in debt financing.

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rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

Finding Technical Cofounders Is Hard. Yesterday, Michael Pope posted an article titled Technical Cofounders Are a Myth. He begins by explaining how he arrived at his conclusion: I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder – a software engineer who works for no cash – to help me build my dream website.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder.

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Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

blog.captainrecruiter.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Technical Co-Founders Are A Myth. Two years ago I got the bug to do an online recruiting startup and I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder - a software engineer who works for no cash - to help me build my dream website. I learned something: technical co-founders are a myth. Captain Recruiter.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Software Engineering 40

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

What is Sweat Equity Worth? Determining how to value sweat equity is key when negotiating with investors and employees. Entrepreneurs often ask me how to value the sweat equity invested in their startup. But over the years, I have come to realize that sweat equity isn't the same thing as market value for your startup.

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Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

www.huffingtonpost.com

MAY 10, 2011

Ive occasionally worked with executive recruiters, for example in hiring a CTO for my first company, Eve.com. I was lucky to sign on as advisor and investor the founder of a very high-profile consumer Internet site who happens to also be a former engineer, who I will call Richard. This time, I decided to handle the process myself.

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CTO CTO Hire PHP Cofounder 43

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

Founders Dilemmas: Equity Splits. The following is an excerpt from HBS Professor Noam Wasserman’s new book, The Founders Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. On average, the founders who keep the most control over their company make the least amount of money. Lessons Learned.

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The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

The accelerator, which counts Amazon CTO Werner Vogels among its startup mentors , will be showcasing its first batch of startups (see list below) in Silicon Valley on the 20th of September, followed by a panel discussion about “The Future of the European Startup Community” Sounds riveting!

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www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Employee Equity: How Much? The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. And the amount of equity you need to grant to accomplish these hires is also an art and most certainly not a science.

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Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

. “We’re all equal co-founders and we don’t care about titles.&# I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#. Dilute your cash, equity or both. Create hassles for post-merger integration of technology or teams.

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Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 9, 2014

Talking to CEO and CTO about role as co-founder/COO. How much equity should I ask for? > You need to be positioned as an equal partner, regardless of equity or title. > > The cofounder title is much easier to give away then real stock. > Your equity depends on all of these? >

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www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Should You Share Equity with Consultants? Science and Technology Technology. We had a rough time early on," says Parker, president and chief technology officer of Roving Software Inc. , Parker found that equity as compensation helped build loyalty to his company -- even among consultants.

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Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Feld Thoughts

DECEMBER 28, 2011

If accepted, each company will receive an equity investment of $20,000 in exchange for six percent of the company in common stock, which will be held by TechStars. While Microsoft is putting significant effort into the accelerator program, Microsoft will not retain intellectual property or equity in any of the participating companies.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 25, 2017

Here is the most recent version of an all too common email inquiry from a startup founder. I'm working on a start up idea in the XXX market with my partner and we are currently looking for full stack developer to join us as a technical co-founder. I've written before about having an Initial Conversation with a Potential CTO.

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Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

While private equity has a history in the U.S. that dates back over a century , the “boom or bust” period of the 1980s to early 1990s is considered the period that marks the rise in private equity and venture capital funding as we know it today. According to Fortune , in 2006, female founders were involved in only 2.95

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The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Two more entrepreneurial ventures later, Gleb cofounded online backup provider Backblaze to help consumers affordably, automatically, and safely back up their data. What are the pros and cons of starting a business alone versus with cofounders? How many founders are too many? One” – You have to have a cofounder.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

From there, I became the first non-founder employee at an e-commerce startup called BITSource, which was the first electronic software distributor delivering electronic volume software licenses to corporations. Tell me a bit about the Founder's Institute. That's a great point, but also one that I think a lot of founders overestimate.

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The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. I think an issue many talented entrepreneurs and European founders (especially German founders) have is, they don’t think big enough. Find the right co-founders and advisors.

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Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

Kayak was started here in my backyard of Boston… co-founder & CTO Paul English and the product/engineering team is based here in Concord MA. Co-founder & CEO Steve Hafner and the business team are based in Norwalk, CT. I co-founded NextView Ventures , a seed-stage VC firm based in Boston, in 2010.

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The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 8, 2019

Launched in 1999, SeedCon is a student-run entrepreneurship and venture capital conference at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; the conference is co-hosted by the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club alongside the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Investors and Entrepreneurs.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 28, 2010

Investors: Matrix (Dana Stadler, who was the CTO of PayPal). Summit is a hugely respected firm in Silicon Valley and a long-term “institution&# but they’re better known as more of a “private equity&# investor meaning that they do later stage investments in much larger companies that are profitable. 15mm in Series A.

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OnlyOnce

MARCH 22, 2016

Joanne Wilson, often better known as Gotham Gal and the founder of the Women’s Entrepreneur Festival, is joining me as Board Co-chair. Joanne is a force to be reckoned with in championing women founders in tech. Tami is the consummate storyteller, which every good founder and Startup CEO needs to be!

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CTO Hire Cofounder Programming Equity 48

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. And the back-end is something that a non-technical founder can manage. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers Technology Roles in Startups Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering?

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Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Developers (and Founders) are challenged to know how much is okay in terms of bugs.

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Technical Cofounder Developer Fractional CTO CTO Hire 280

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

It proved to be fortuitous because it allowed me the time & space I needed to get to know tons of founders and VCs and to hone my craft. Some Teams Create, Others Scale (Some do both) There is so much focus these days on founders and whether they should always remain in the CEO seat. Some start, some scale, some can do both.

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IP Intellectual Property IRR Cofounder 223

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 3, 2015

by Tom Britton, co-founder & CTO at SyndicateRoom.com. While the ultimate say comes down to you as the founder, there will be certain situations where your investors experience will be far greater than your own and you’ll need to let them call the shots (behind the scenes).

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Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Left to right: Heather Shen , CTO; Melina Lopez , CPO; and Elise Smith , CEO The Forrest Four-Cast: February 25, 2020 As the saying goes: Before you judge a person, walk a mile in their shoes. My co-founders and I all met at Stanford so Palo Alto is really where it all began. We joke that we were always running somewhere?

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Cofounder Vertical Green Austin 62

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

You’ve got a great idea and domain expertise, but limited money and insufficient technology resources. Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest.

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Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

www.scottporad.com

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

For example, we have a mailing list in Seattle called “Seattle Tech Startups&# which is a great place to find a co-founder or developer-type. Written by scottporad November 15th, 2010 at 8:00 am Posted in Mailbag « What It Really Means To Be a CTO Mailbag: What information do I need to recruit a developer?

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VC Cafe

AUGUST 3, 2011

Yair Goldfinger’s Dotomi sold to ValueClick for $295 million, of which $162 million are in cash and the rest will be paid in ValueClick equity. Yair Goldfinger, co-founder and CTO of Dotomi and a prominent Israeli angel investor, founded Dotomi back in 2000, following the acquisition of ICQ by AOL.

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Angel Investor Chicago Retention Cofounder 87

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 4, 2009

Adeo Ressi , the founding member of TheFunded , recently announced the establishment of TheFunded Founder Institute. The Founder Institute helps founders launch innovative companies by providing training, services, and company-building assignments, such as incorporating the business, filing provision patents, and setting up books and records.

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