www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

Founders Dilemmas: Equity Splits. The following is an exclusive excerpt which sets up a common pitfall regarding equity splits. In Noam’s dataset, 73% of founding teams split equity within a month of founding, a striking number given the big uncertainties early in the life of any startup. Lessons Learned.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Following is his advice to early stage entrepreneurs for creating structure in their company. Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

David Teten

MARCH 28, 2012

This study is effectively a sequel to the study David Teten led with Chris Farmer of General Catalyst on best practices of venture capital and private equity funds in originating new deals , published in Journal of Private Equity , Harvard Business Review , Institutional Investor , etc.

Portfolio 144

Portfolio Private Equity Venture Capital Early Stage 144

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Changing Equity Structures for Early Startup Employees Tweet Recently someone asked me for advice on how much equity they should give to their early employees. His company had just closed an early round of funding and he wanted to cement the employee relationships. Those first employees will take 0.5-1%

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company. If you’re not a founder (by choice, timing or temperament,) you may be an early employee or a later stage startup employee. This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

You don’t even need to do anything and we’ll give you equity. That said, there are three types of advisors that I don’t see as commonly utilized by early stage startups — at least the ones we’re not advising. Advisors can be so much more than social proof and tactical advice. Can we put you as an advisor in our deck?

Advisory Board 150

Advisory Board Equity Vesting Startup 150

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Over the years we brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Part 2: Early-stage Regional Venture Funds.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 312

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

They add mentors and additional services and some offer free space in exchange for equity. Accelerators take teams with fairly focused ideas and offer a formal 3-4 month program of tutoring/mentoring with seed funding in exchange for equity. Incubators are designed for teams with an idea.

San Diego 261

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 261

Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. Startups now understand what they should be doing in their early formative days is search for a business model. Victor Hugo. Lessons Learned.

Silicon Valley 281

Silicon Valley Business Model Early Stage Venture Capital 281

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 15, 2011

Startups now understand what they should be doing in their early formative days is search for a business model. The process they use to guide that search is "Customer Development" ; and to track their progress startups now have a scorecard to document their week-by-week changes – the business model canvas.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Startup Early Stage Business Model 118

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

With no money, how do you expect to have great design, engineering, copy, marketing, content marketing, customer service, operations, and everything else that comes along with running a successful startup. But as an early stage startup, accountability is so important. Something has to give. Having great accountability.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., equity that belongs to departed cofounders)? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) government’s SBIR and STTR programs.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Programming SBIR China 278

The Equity Kicker

MAY 7, 2015

We think the best next step is to find a point of emotional connection with customers. The beauty of this step is that it’s simple to understand and easily actionable via a good customer development process.

Business Model 60

Business Model Search Due Diligence Early Stage 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

He is also an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Columbia Business School , and an angel investor hailed as one of New York City’s top 100 early-stage investors. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111 Filed under: Customer Development. Still, it’s been a steep learning curve.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

This is typically done with a small piece of equity. lol [link] Ben Yoskovitz @Zack: You don’t necessarily have to pay your Advisory Board with money – generally you compensate with equity. A Few Quick Tips on Advisory Boards A few additional thoughts: Compensation. You will most likely have to compensate board members.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Set up in 1999, Innofund offers grants ($150 – $250K), loan interest subsidies and equity investment. Innofund is designed to bridge early stage technology companies that have innovative technology and good market potential but are too early for commercial funding (banks or VCs.) government’s SBIR and STTR programs.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Programming SBIR China 170

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

equity debate. Rethinking “F@#$ You Money” - Tony Wright dot com , August 2, 2010 Now that I’ve stepped down from RescueTime, I’m pondering my next thing (whether it’s a product role at a very early stage startup or spinning up my own for the 3rd time). Have convertible notes really won? Why do startups? via Urban Dictionary ).

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

He says, “Spending a few thousand on a domain could make a big difference long term, and give you the credibility and advantage over the competition, especially in the very beginning and early stages of the business.”. Bringing in investors too early, before proof of concept is hard and may be unnecessary.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

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? Only if you’re doing it with the intention to learn about the market and customers. Initial developer: partner or hired?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

My way of explaining our support and service role to the marketing department was that: Sales is the sharp end of the stick, and marketing at best, is the stick. But while the sales team works for commission, the rest of the employees have equity (stock) in the company. No one was confused after that. Who’s on the Sharp End?

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 126

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" => I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. "Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?" Just go to a meetup or post an ad promising equity. This person does not exist.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. However, my two initial co-founders were not technical and couldn’t contribute significantly during the initial year plus of development. Love the guest post TechCrunch!

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

The Entrepreneurial Mind

MARCH 10, 2011

Like most microfunds, JumpStart Foundry (JSF) has focused on very early-stage concepts. Each of the selected concepts for our first year of operating this microfund received $15,000 in equity capital and special arrangements with participating partners for marketing, accounting, legal and technology services.

Nashville 65

Nashville Tennessee PHP Ruby 65

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

are just emerging for business people (customer development, business model generation,). Developers who understand and can execute on a business model. Four developers who have the ability to take on the following roles while cranking out an awesome product in the early stages.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. YCombinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. Founder Equity Issues. Venture Hacks equity section. Legal, Equity, etc. Seed Startups.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53