Eric Friedman

JANUARY 23, 2022

I finalized my notes for the ODX Accelerator program, the early stage accelerator I am building at On Deck , and I wanted to summarize here. I love the start of programs, when teams are excited – all at the earliest stages of company creation. What equity you give early stage advisors matters. Fundraising.

Early Stage 78

Early Stage Equity .Net Vesting 78

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

I’ve had this conversation with several communities such as in San Diego where I believe there are way more qualified and talented engineers than available local capital to support them. If you’re working with early-stage companies you need to be spending quality time with them which means you need to be nearby.

Community 378

Community San Diego Silicon Valley Los Angeles 378

OnlyOnce

APRIL 27, 2021

Here are four tough conversations you may have to have along the way, with some suggestions on how to navigate them. All of these conversations need to come with a point of view of why independence and diversity matters to your company, a lot of empathy, and appreciation for the value the person brings to the table.

Vesting 48

Vesting Cofounder Startup Term Sheet 48

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

And besides, obtaining early-stage investment is no guarantee of success, either. The signs to me are all too obvious from our conversations. -based venture capital fund had just invested in 17 companies. This tiny percentage is pretty typical, and represents a lot of time wasted by all concerned. Surely we can do better?

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

Safe Space I know that people can hear a term like “safe space” and make assumptions about what that might mean but the truth is that first-time founders really do need a safe space to make mistakes, ask dumb questions, learn & interact with peers and get advice from mentors who have a vested interested in helping them succeed.

Founder 256

Founder San Francisco Deal Flow Los Angeles 256

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Early stage startups have to survive one day at a time and are often presented with limited choices of the moment that enable them to continue. At early stages you probably don’t have an assembly line and can’t clearly define any particular job. But, later on they often wish they had the ability to erase many of them.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

These are all real conversations. of the time I have no vested interest in having the debate. What if when you have that conversation you don’t agree? But founders these days seem strangely unfocused on finance and on terms that could hurt them even though we fought to the death about these same terms 10 years ago.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 16, 2018

First, in the early stages, there's a lot more information that can be gleaned about you than we can know for sure about the success of your company. Given that so much of the bet at these early stages, even at the Series A comes down more to "Do I believe what this founder believes?" Well, it all depends, right?

Due Diligence 96

Due Diligence Early Stage Term Sheet Vesting 96

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 24, 2014

In retrospect I lost a lot of future gains by cashing out too early but what I gained was more important: peace of mind in removing the only debt I’d ever carried. The vast majority of my future savings was (a) not vested yet and (b) tied to hope for future stock grants I’d earn.

Founder 108

Founder San Francisco Liquidity Event LP 108

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Especially in early rounds — pre-seed and seed— when there are limited sales metrics and only early signs of product-market fit, these advisors help complete “the package” so to speak, providing a useful industry reference to investors and filling in the gaps in domain expertise that are common in disruptive tech-first founding teams.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Through a series of conversations, Jane and Dick have come up with the idea to develop a social network tailored to the medical community. That narrowed the possibilities down to an equity transaction, which would in turn require a conversation about valuation. of the company ($50k/$2M = 2.5%). warrants or discounts).

Equity 137

Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

In this example if they sell only $10,000 in total in year one they own zero warrants the same way that an employee with options who quits after 6 months usually owns no options when they leave your company (due to the cliff period in most vesting programs). Should You Offer Them? Same with PBW’s. Have minimums but a sliding scale.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

  A cumulative dividend can get to be very expensive and is not often a feature in early stage terms. These include: ·       Vesting of Founder Stock.   A cumulative dividend can get to be very expensive and is not often a feature in early stage terms.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

These are all real conversations. of the time I have no vested interest in having the debate. What if when you have that conversation you don’t agree? But founders these days seem strangely unfocused on finance and on terms that could hurt them even though we fought to the death about these same terms 10 years ago.

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

on top of that often results in conversations and incentives that are difficult to overcome, especially early on in a company. I recently joined CoVenture , an early-stage venture capital firm that develops products and invests cash in exchange for equity. He writes: The premises of this conversation are very complicated.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2016

My internal compass says that “country-club” entrepreneurs struggle to make as big of an impact because it’s really hard to totally change a system that you’re part of and have a vested interest in. So positive chips are a great signal for me. But chips come in multiple flavors and it’s a fine line between positive and negative.

Churn Rate 150

Churn Rate Vesting Dilution Europe 150

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. The Pocket Negotiator is very early-stage attempt to aid in the negotiating process itself. ExitRound helps early stage companies identify buyers in smaller exits. . What’s Your VC Tech Stack?

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Chris Devore & Andy Sack have created Founder’s Coop with the goal of funding, incubating & launching more early-stage ventures in Seattle. It’s clear that America has a vested interest in promoting entrepreneurship in many regions in the country to stimulate innovation & job creation.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

the total amount their note would be divided by in case of conversion. Let’s say these notes have a valuation cap of $3 million, as they invested early in the company. Depending on the math of the conversion, this investor would be getting far less than their expected 20%. One of these terms is the valuation cap, ie.

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Vest, young man. Starting a company without vesting your stock is like getting your girlfriend pregnant on the first date. To go back to our original conversation, entrepreneurs want to focus on accomplishment rather than idle praise. Also, get on twitter…great way to interact and converse w peeps in real time.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Even better, executives will negotiate the acquisition price of their company down; in exchange for a larger amount of post-acquisition retentio n equity and accelerated vesting. How much equity do early employees typically get? How much equity do early employees typically get? 125 people are following this question.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

When it comes to early stage investing – it’s all gut. Does it make sense to spend this time speaking about your early stage start-up when your product has not even entered Alpha testing? Typically its way more important to build product, and pull in early users to give you that feedback vs. speaking about it.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 25, 2016

But if we were unique in a different dimension, that would turn the conversation into feature X versus Y. Nevertheless, this example demonstrates that, even in the absence of data (which is frequently the case, especially with early-stage startups), this technique helps us arrive at a clear and sensible decision.

Differentiation 120

Differentiation Framework Restful Software Review 120