Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

We slept under the tables, and pulled all-nighters to get to first customer ship, man the booths at trade shows or ship products to make quarterly revenue – all because it was “our” company. Not everyone got the same amount of stock. The founders got most of the common stock. And the bet worked. Today, that’s not true.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

Austin Startup

JULY 22, 2021

All finalists will receive: A fast track into the Capital Factory portfolio where you will receive opportunities to get in front of potential investors, customers and employees. Any software, hardware, or CPG startup in Texas with a female founder or co-founder can apply to participate. Female Founders!

San Antonio 107

San Antonio Dallas Houston Founder 107

Scott Edward Walker

NOVEMBER 22, 2015

electronic files, prototypes, customer lists, etc.). prior to incorporation is typically assigned to the company as part of the founder’s restricted stock purchase agreement (or a separate assignment agreement). Founders should also make sure that when they leave their prior employer they don’t take anything with them (e.g.,

IP 40

IP Software Review Due Diligence Intellectual Property 40

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Why Arizona Bay started taking stock from its customers instead of cash. Graham also pushes for common stock, the right to participate in future funding rounds to preserve the size of the stake, and a guaranteed seat on the board. Get and keep customers with affordable online marketing tools. LEADERSHIP & MANAGING.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

None of this was law, and nothing in writing required this; this was just how these firms did business to protect their large institutional customers who would buy the stock. This required a repeatable and scalable sales process, which required a professional sales staff and a product stable enough that customers wouldn’t return it.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Up and Running

AUGUST 17, 2015

C Corp versus LLC, non-competes, liquidation preferences, preferred versus common stock, and so on). This is particularly useful if you are catering to a millennial customer. Business school provided them the perfect opportunity to work closely with their target customer.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Cofounder Angel Investor eCommerce 60

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 7, 2018

Penny Stocks. If you aren’t all that savvy when it comes to investments, start with penny stocks. As they aren’t worth much, a common stock sold for under a dollar on the market is a great way for a small business owner to learn the market and develop important skills.

Small Business 77

Small Business Jacksonville Stock Florida 77

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

They take common stock, not preferred, a fact that the entrepreneurs mentioned to me many times. And do your customer development. These quotes are, as is my custom, straight from twitter. When they could hear the customers complaints in their own voice, it became clear when it was time to up the quality level.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Continuous Deployment 113

SiliconHills

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

Netspend, founded in 1999, sells prepaid debit cards and other financial services to customers without bank accountants in the United States. The deal calls for TSYS, based in Columbus, Georgia, to pay $16 in cash for each share of NetSpend common stock. TSYS announced plans to acquire Austin-based NetSpend for $1.4

Austin 60

Austin Columbus Georgia United States 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

And they might give a premium if the team has been around a longer period of time, has built some hard-to-build proprietary technology or has some customer traction. If the money comes from professional investors it usually has a “liquidation preference” meaning that their money comes out before the founders or common stock. (If

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 5, 2018

Build trust – I write more about this below as well, but your website needs to work the way your customers need it to and expect it to. Your website is often a potential customer’s first impression, so you need to make it a good one. Do the best you can to avoid common stock photos.

Kansas City 76

Kansas City Kansas Audience Differentiation 76

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. The whole reason for PBW’s is to drive incentives of a partner or customer to help you succeed. Common Mistakes.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Growthink Blog

MAY 10, 2012

Stage #2: Seed Funding Seed funding (also called seed capital) typically ranges from $100,000 to $500,000 and is often provided by angel investors, and is usually structured as convertible notes or common stock. That is, you'll use the funding to build a product or service and prove that customers want to buy it.

Equity 88

Equity Mezzanine Later Stage Venture Capital 88

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 23, 2010

At its height, the company employed more than 130 people and their products reached customers in dozens of countries. But, tragically, 3 years after their apex, this firm sold for less than their annual revenue, laid off nearly the entire staff, and left common stock shareholders, my friends included, with nothing.

Common Stock 63

Common Stock Stock Options Stock Cofounder 63

abovethecrowd.com

MAY 20, 2013

There are many synergies – different geographic strengths, different core customer bases, and different product strengths. There are common stock, common options, and as many as three to five different layers of preferred stock, each with a specific liquidation preference. 1) Structural Challenges.

Merger 53

Merger Institutional Investors Liquidation Preference Preferred Stock 53

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

As a result, the amount these employees pay the company for these exercises is non-trivial… in 2011 these common stock purchases generated about $1 billion in cash for Facebook. To put that in perspective, Facebook’s overall operations (which are highly profitable) generated about $1.5 billion in cash profit last year.

IPO 100

IPO South Korea Venezuela Revenue 100

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

.   (“If we can close 35% of all opportunities, and can get an opportunity by making x contacts, and there are 300 opportunities per month, then we should be able to sell 100 customers per month if we have the capital ($35 per contact) to cover the market every month.”   This results in a five-year projection of XYZ.).

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Tim Keane

APRIL 12, 2006

Are you able to explain why your product is a compelling purchase for the customer, and how the customer will make buying decisions? Common stock is a vehicle for sharing risk equally with insiders who have more knowledge and ability to affect business results. Can you describe what will make the company grow?

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Valuation Sweat Equity Common Stock 60

Startup Company Lawyer

JULY 20, 2009

Thus, a company should generally incorporate before launching a product or a service due to potential liability issues, as the risk of liability to a founder increases with customers or users. Obtaining visas. If a non-U.S. citizen/non-permanent resident founder intends to work in the U.S.

IP 67

IP Stock Options Preferred Stock Capital Gains 67

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

What the entrepreneurs were really saying is, “I don’t want to take a lower valuation now, while I don’t have customers or a full team. they now have 4x the stock and thus 4x the liquidation preferences (since each share has liquidation preferences on it). .” I think both points-of-view were a bit naive.

Ratchet 354

Ratchet Liquidation Preference Equity Stock 354

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Contact The Startup Lawyer: Home Page About Contact FAQs Glossary Ryan Roberts Law: Home Page Social Networks: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr Delicious Digg Last.FM He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. Ryan Roberts says: August 20, 2010 at 4:41 am Thanks for the kind words, Tamer.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

Professor VC

JULY 25, 2013

I''m a strong believer in fairness (although my daughters may not agree) and investors and entrepreneurs working together as a team to create something valuable to all stakeholders (customers, employees, founders, investors). Startup outcomes tend to be very binary.

Term Sheet 46

Term Sheet Silicon Valley Syndicate Syndication 46

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 29, 2013

Angels might be interested during “early stage” if you have a prototype, but VCs won’t bite until you have a product, customers, and revenue. The most common case is an equity investment, but there are many terms that can impact what request size is credible. Calculate what you need, and add a buffer. Single or staged delivery.

Valuation 258

Valuation Early Stage Warrant Common Stock 258

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Sometimes, the vesting is milestone-based (upon the close of a financing) or performance-based (signing up customers, doing deals, recruiting). For her services, the consultant will own common stock equal to $50K/$2M or 2.5% If you like them and they have been helpful, you sign them up for another term.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Angels might be interested during “early stage” if you have a prototype, but VCs won’t bite until you have a product, customers, and revenue. The most common case is an equity investment, but there are many terms that can impact what request size is credible. Calculate what you need, and add a buffer. Single or staged delivery.

Valuation 236

Valuation Early Stage Warrant Common Stock 236

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2011

Angels might be interested during “early stage” if you have a prototype, but VCs won’t bite until you have a product, customers, and revenue. The most common case is an equity investment, but there are many terms that can impact what request size is credible. Calculate what you need, and add a buffer. Single or staged delivery.

Entrepreneur 234

Entrepreneur Valuation Early Stage Warrant 234

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

0.25% of a company’s post-Series A stock. For example, they introduce the company to a key customer or investor. Super advisors The super advisor can get as much stock as a board member: 1%-2% of a company’s post-Series A stock. They know all your prospective customers intimately.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

By which I meannot that it has to make something physical, but that it has to haveone thing it sells to many people, rather than doing custom workfor individual clients. Custom work doesnt scale. An advantage of consulting, as a way to develop a product, is thatyou know youre making something at least one customer wants.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 9, 2010

Angels might be interested during “early stage” if you have a prototype, but VCs won’t bite until you have a product, customers, and revenue. The most common case is an equity investment, but there are many terms that can impact what request size is credible. Calculate what you need. See where your cashflow bottoms out.

Valuation 227

Valuation Early Stage Warrant Common Stock 227

K9 Ventures

OCTOBER 19, 2015

So move on, recruit awesome people, build product, make your customers happy by delivering value to them and build your company by making them pay you for it. I imagine that that’s almost like a new thing for several of the wall-street type investors since they typically only invested in common stock in liquid markets.

Venture Capital 48

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Portfolio 48

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

This reverse dilution benefits all classes of stock proportionally even though the common stock holders paid for all of the initial dilution in the first place! Third, if you sell the company before the Series B, all un-issued and un-vested options will be cancelled.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

The Entrepreneurial Mind

MARCH 10, 2011

ownership in the Common Stock of the company. Program Content : "Lean Startup / Customer Development in practice. In addition, three members. of the group offered their knowledge and experience to mentor the. entrepreneur and accelerate the success of the project. In return for. this investment, JSF received a collective 10%.

Nashville 65

Nashville Tennessee PHP Ruby 65