Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards. If you’re a super experienced Silicon Valley CEO with a billion-dollar exit?—?probably.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If you’re thinking about extending equity to an employee or a vendor (as in the example above), you should know that the topic is multi-faceted. If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different. Finding great employees first.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Capital investments are like gasoline on a startup business’s metaphorical fire. If you’re like most startup CEOs, your startup has been your personal fiefdom and baby. Background: Justin Klemm’s analytics and website uptime startup, Ghost Inspector , wants to revolutionize the way businesses manage their ecommerce funnels.

Private Equity 94

Private Equity Pre-Money Valuation Equity Startup 94

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

VC’s have just changed the ~50-year old social contract with startup employees. In doing so they may have removed one of the key incentives that made startups different from working in a large company. For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Here’s why.

Stock Options 334

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 334

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. 5) High Productivity: Kayak had 148 employees at the end of 2010. That means that Kayak generates roughly $1.15M in revenue for each employee which puts it in the same league as Google and Apple (both >$1M/head). Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

A View from the Valley. Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. People tend to underestimate how much record keeping is involved with managing employees and consultants, and this just adds an unacceptable extra burden. Quora Answers.

Equity 40

Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2013

For the past 5 years or so Google, Facebook and a handful of tech industry giants have been quietly buying scores of early-stage startups for their talent. A couple of tech giants throw millions around in either cash (for which they have hoards) or part with some publicly traded stock. Go do a startup. And who cares, right?

Liquidation Preference 357

Liquidation Preference Early Stage Retention Lock-up Period 357