Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

The company was going to hire a VP of Marketing. This sentence is worth reading multiple times as no one – not the person who hired you, the VC’s or your peers -is going to tell you when you’re hired that the company will likely outgrow you. Your original hires embody the company culture. I was devastated.

Part-Time VPE 333

Part-Time VPE Employee Cofounder Hiring 333

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. “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.

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

YoungUpstarts

MAY 6, 2019

You are looking for cofounders that can help you build a product. You have finally found a cofounder that can take care of the startup. If you are getting funded for the first time, which means that you have not diluted the shares of your company, you will be receiving Series A funding. Hiring more resources. Commitment.

Startup 113

Startup Technical Cofounder Merger Early Stage 113

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

years ago and told me, “I just got offered the chance to buy this company because the founder doesn’t want to continue. How much dilution should I take for it?&# My friend’s company was pre-revenue. Me: “Zero dilution. Sometimes this involves co-CEO’s. They often involve big hugs on stage.

Merger 276

Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 16, 2016

By Bryan Miles, CEO and co-founder, Miles Advisory Group, Inc. But entrepreneurs face other concerns that compete with this growth focus, including hiring, maintaining current revenue sources and distinguishing themselves from the competition. Bryan Miles is CEO & co-founder of Miles Advisory Group, Inc.

Cofounder 100

Cofounder Balance Sheet Small Business Administration Technical Review 100

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

I was reading one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs, VentureHacks, this weekend and noticed that they are running a long piece on how to pick a co-founder. Once it’s set up I recommend bringing in a co-founder and giving them 10-30% of the company depending upon when you bring them in. You’ll be fine.

Hiring 289

Hiring Cofounder Dilution Startup 289

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Capital need of up to $1.5M

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

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? Hire everyone you need as an employee.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

What is it, and how should founders think about it? note: We’d like to be extra clear that founders should not take on venture debt if they don’t have 100% visibility into repaying the loan, as banks that need to recoup their loan my force the company or you as the guarantor into liquidation or bankruptcy.

Term Sheet 120

Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

This is a guest post from Stephano Kim , former co-founder of Web 1.0 Many startup CEOs hire COOs or launch companies with a co-founder carrying the title. When should founders hire one? Founders seek COOs for many reasons. The most valuable resource a founder has is his/her time and energy.

Hiring 336

Hiring Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder 336

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

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. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. First, a caveat. Let's say the number is $25mm.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

JANUARY 9, 2014

No clear vision or purpose This should be the starting point for any startup founder, but it’s often overlooked. By trying to appeal to everyone and adding features left, right and centre, you will actually dilute your message and could end up with a complex, bloated product. Life’s too short to build something nobody wants.”

Early Stage 102

Early Stage Startup Cofounder Design 102

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 7, 2017

Employee options pools, typically created at the point of financings, shouldn’t be treated as haggling over dilution, but rather a strategic resource that will help founders build the best team and, by extension, a more valuable company.

Equity 94

Equity Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Founder 94

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Well, if you have an option pool of only 6% and have many more execs to hire to build out your team you’re going to ask for more options to be created in the future. If you’re a solo founder and haven’t built out your team or engineers I’m likely to want 15+%. Those are the big three. Size of my check.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 9, 2013

Should you increase your burn rate by adding 2 senior hires who will help you ship faster or sell more but then have less time for fund raising? Should you raise $3 million in stead of $2 million even though it means more dilution so that you will have a longer runway? Or maybe their existence itself will help accelerate fund raising.

Burn Rate 413

Burn Rate Cofounder Dilution Valuation 413

Austin Startup

JUNE 30, 2017

Background / Related Reading: Founder Education Gatekeepers and Ecosystems What is the purpose of universities? in exchange for a price: usually 6–9% of equity, with (sometimes) heavy anti-dilution rights, and pro-rata rights. Top accelerators have corrected an imbalance between the strength of founders’ networks and those of VCs.

Curation 48

Curation Startup Cofounder Equity 48

Andrew Payne

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

If an early very experienced developer has 1%, and a less senior dev has 0.5%, those become two reference points for the next dev hire. But, how should founders divide things up in the very beginning , where none of these internal reference points exist? And, how can founders talk about percentages before any funding?

Equity 71

Equity Founder Vesting Dilution 71

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

For starters let me use “CEO” as a proxy to include her “inner circle” which might mean co-founders or might just mean senior execs of the business. The Mind of the Founder. The mind of a founder is wired differently than most people. The startup CEO was not the original founder.

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

View from Seed

APRIL 16, 2015

Often, when I speak to very early-stage founders, the conversation around value focuses on achievements. These might include: Bring on a technical co-founder. This is especially true for less experienced founders. Get a working version of the product. Get three paying customers. Launch a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Seed Stage 120

Seed Stage Cofounder Early Stage Startup 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read. Brant and Patrick undertook a difficult challenge: to provide a generally accessible introduction to Customer Development, without diluting its impact or dumbing-down its principles.

Customer Development 166

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

K9 Ventures

MAY 6, 2015

Conventional wisdom in the startup world dictates that two founders are ideal for a startup. There are lots of famous pairs of duo co-founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Jerry Yang and David Filo, Hewlett and Packard, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Having the right co-founder is perhaps the single most valuable thing in a startup.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 48

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Back in 1997, Randy Parker was staring at a blank whiteboard, wondering where hed find the money to hire the employees and consultants he needed to build his new product. "We Chip Morse , cofounder and partner with Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton P.C., Mediation and Arbitration Agreement -- Sample. based in Waltham, Mass.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Austin Startup

JANUARY 11, 2020

Capital Factory’s Saturday Startup Spotlight series, where we chat with an exciting new startup and get to know their story, returns this week with the co-founder and CEO of TaxTaker : Ari Palmer. It’s now the #1 non-dilutive source of capital for businesses to continue to grow and scale, but it’s highly overlooked.

CPA 62

CPA Startup Non-Compete Cofounder 62

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. You can start by examining every aspect of the co-founder relationship. Don’t leave anything out just because you and your co-founders already talked about it.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

Rob Go

JUNE 10, 2013

Write code, talk to users, and build the company (hire the best people you can find, get the culture right, fundraise, close sales, etc.) Most other things that founders do are a waste of time. For some reason most founders are really bad at this one. Hire slow; fire fast. Hire friends and friends of friends.

Startup 49

Startup Technical Cofounder Hiring Cofounder 49

The Startup Lawyer

AUGUST 22, 2011

. “Control&# of a startup can manifest itself in various forms such as equal (or investor-favorable) representation on the board of directors or a requirement of obtaining seed investor approval for new hires and/or budget matters. Non-Dilution. Personal Guaranty.

Angel Investor 99

Angel Investor Dividend Dilution Cofounder 99

David Teten

JANUARY 21, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. This essay is part of a series on alternative VC: I: Revenue-Based Investing: a new option for founders who care about control. III: Why are Revenue-Based VCs investing in so many women and underrepresented founders?

Equity 78

Equity Revenue Cofounder Colorado 78

This is going to be BIG.

AUGUST 13, 2015

Fail to appreciate what product management is--because you think that all you need is a technical co-founder to build something that people love. Fail to understand the relationship between continuing to hire salespeople and growing your revenues, and fail to figure out what the payback is on hiring an additional salesperson.

Dilution 60

Dilution Cofounder PR Demand 60

blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

The graphic below balances the risks cofounders take with their relative contributions to help answer this question. This covers one of the most common situations I encounter: For a pre-funding web startup whose team includes only a non-technical cofounder, how much equity should an incoming technical cofounder get?

Technical Cofounder 43

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Equity Salary 43

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

Very cool concept and I want to thank the founder Adil Mohammed for inviting me to take part in it. I’ve learned this first hand from Mark Gerson, the founder of Gerson Lehrman Group. As the founder, you’re the number one sales person of the company and it is not a function you can outsource right away.

Elevator Pitch 102

Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve talked with a number of software development shops who are eager to get into the business of cofounding companies, i.e., getting product revenue and equity instead of just consulting revenue. What are the terms of their relationship with the founder?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

They had their own private forum, and a company founder (aka me) personally ran the group in its early days. Every time you listen to customers, you fear diluting your vision. They had their own private forum, and a company founder (aka me) personally ran the group in its early days. Here’s what it looks like.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

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.

Founder 28

Founder Warrant San Francisco Intellectual Property 28

Pascal's View

DECEMBER 30, 2012

While every company founder makes trade-offs in building a company, few entrepreneurs appreciate the far-reaching implications of several critical decisions they will are required to make at the outset of a startup’s evolution. Most founders tend to make decisions with no process, based on their gut instincts.

Cofounder 34

Cofounder Liquidation Preference Vesting Equity 34

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

Before StartEngine, Howard co-founded Activision and founded Acclaim Games. . The Founder’s gut wrongly tells them their business plan has been validated because they received an investment. Weaknesses inside the founder team kill startups. The truth is, sometimes you need to replace your co-founders and start over.

Metrics 136

Metrics Cofounder Cram Down Liquidity Event 136

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Don’t hire people with skills and qualifications similar to yours. If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Hire based on functionality and avoid having too many C’s.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

Jeff Hilimire

APRIL 6, 2015

This is a very common question, either for people just starting their company (in which the question becomes, “should I have a co-founder”), or people who are running a fairly young company. Reasons you might not need a co-founder or partner: You’re an experienced entrepreneur and are confident you can do it alone.

Partner 28

Partner Cofounder Dilution Equity 28