Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. These shortcuts add up and become what is called technical debt. You fix technical debt by refactoring , going into the existing code and “cleaning it up” by restructuring it. Organizational debt was coming due.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. Expertise can be marketing, technical, financial, or sales. The same logic applies to splitting equity with co-founders. Building a product doesn’t get it distributed and sold.

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. Expertise can be marketing, technical, financial, or sales. The same logic applies to splitting equity with co-founders. Building a product doesn’t get it distributed and sold.

Equity 228

Equity Intellectual Property Cofounder CTO Hire 228

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We Running comparative calculations, Arsenault figures that “two senior engineers plus a product manager/marketer for 40 hours per month, times 6 months, would be 720 hours to get to our MVP.

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

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? The question is: how should they be compensated when cofounding a company? What are the terms of their relationship with the founder? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

David Teten

MAY 7, 2019

Briefly, we think there’s a substantial market for a business which helps enterprises to execute initiatives which require coordination across diverse stakeholders, e.g., make a large sale to a critical client, or lobby for a change in regulation. Q: Is this civic tech? If the answer is yes to any of these, keep reading. A nonprofit?

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

David Teten

JULY 10, 2019

Briefly, we think there’s a substantial market for a business which helps enterprises to execute initiatives which require coordination across diverse stakeholders, e.g., make a large sale to a critical client, or lobby for a change in regulation. Q: Is this civic tech? Our technology can also scale to other geographies.

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

The Startup Toolkit

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

false As a cheatsheet, the “normal” equity structure is: Founder terms: 4 year vesting, 1 year cliff, for everyone, including you. 2.0% ) : 4 year vesting, optional cliff, full acceleration on exit. When it comes to equity terms, there are only 3 things to understand: vesting, cliffs, and acceleration. Advisor terms ( 0.5–2.0%

Vesting 56

Vesting Equity Cofounder Technical Review 56

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We Running comparative calculations, Arsenault figures that “two senior engineers plus a product manager/marketer for 40 hours per month, times 6 months, would be 720 hours to get to our MVP.

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. awards dinner on Thursday night I started reflected on what it would take to “change the trajectory&# for Seattle or for any regional market, really. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. The ingredients are all here.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. founder fighting. founder fighting. Both are right.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My original thinking from Oct ’09 was, while I didn’t (and still don’t) have a crystal ball I worried that: consumers were over-stretched with debt (and make up 77% of the economy), unemployment would continue to rise, which in turn would drive the stock market south and cut the rate of M&A activity and VC investment even further.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Technical Review Balance Sheet Government 298

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Facebook’s situation is far from unique, even among recent tech IPOs. Noam Wasserman on Inc.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2010

Take Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo! Marketing wants the sales teams to use the materials they’ve produced. And in public companies we used to mockingly rename their titles to CVO … Chief Vesting Officer. Bad leaders want to be loved too much and their companies (or countries) suffer.

Entrepreneur 330

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley United States Technical Review 330

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

The conventional wisdom says a startup CEO should make way for a professional CEO once the company has achieved product-market fit. In this post, I describe why we prefer to fund companies whose founder will run the company as its CEO. The macro reason: that’s the way most of the great technology companies have been built.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Facebook’s situation is far from unique, even among recent tech IPOs. Noam Wasserman on Inc.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

The Next Web

JUNE 21, 2015

Startup marketers like myself: definitely read this one as soon as possible (in fact, I’m making a promise to start it today). Suggested by: Gilles Bertaux , Growth Marketer @ Mention. Suggested by: Guillaume Cabane , Head of Marketing @ Mention. The Year without Pants by Scott Berkun. Which software company? Automattic.

PR 60

PR Startup Software Review Technical Review 60

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Also worth a read after you review these startup failure post-mortems. surrendered market leadership and thought leadership. A month ago, half way through my angel funds raised from family members, I decided to review the progress I’ve made and figure out what still needs to happen to make this a viable business. Author : Kabir.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Written By Dan Martell on February 2nd, 2012 | Category: Hiring LeanStartup Marketing Metrics Startup Life | 6 Comments. Take the market and break it down into smaller chunks. I have the knowledge in tech to implement it. If you’re looking for technical talent – go to the dev meetups. Why do I do it? Building Product 2.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact Home About Contact The Metamorphosis Becoming an Entrepreneur, by Matt Mireles Startup Lessons for the Proto-Founder I started SpeakerText in October 2008 during the financial apocalypse. You need a Co-Founder, not an Engineering Bitch. Treat everyone you hire like a co-founder. No one funded us.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

If a consultant claims they can enhance your marketing efforts, pay them based on their direct impact on your incremental sales. Their story, market positioning, products, etc. I’ve done tech marketing and PR consulting for 20+ years – many clients with multi-year and (entrepreneurial) multi-business relationships.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

The options typically vest monthly over 1-2 years with 100% single-trigger acceleration and no cliff. Although the advisor is on a vesting schedule, you should expect them to add most of their value up-front—that’s normal. Does this stake need to have vesting schedule? Read some fun reviews of this site. Learn more.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Start Up Blog

APRIL 28, 2011

BRIC nations especially are innovating and creating new technology platforms, while the west holds onto fossil fuel era. The above equation is something that marketers, brands and businesses need to take note of. GEO-locating is the juncture that makes technology connections “real”. Meaning & Value > Volume. APP Appeal.

Moldova 91

Moldova Internet Australia Libya 91

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

I've known Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, CEO and Head of Community at Airbnb for a long time. What if you get product market fit beyond your wildest dreams? One by one the markets in which you operate shut down. Brian Chesky : I am Brian Chesky, co-founder, CEO, and head of community at Airbnb. What if it works?

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60