A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

WP Engine is one of those, and we laugh about how drastic the changes are, in the rare spaces between tackling the latest challenge. We have “youthful energy” for new innovations, but we also have all the challenges of fast-growing companies with hundreds of employees; that’s part of success.

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Acquisition Technical Review Stock Options Employee 120

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

Now that I’ve mapped out key first steps that need to be taken and important cultural nuances to be aware of when expanding your business into Asia , many CEOs ask me if they can actually locate their engineering and product teams here and expect the same level of quality they get in the Valley. My simple answer is: absolutely.

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Silicon Valley Asia Engineer Stock Options 121

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2017

Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. Unless you have a sizable nest egg, or a working spouse with an income to support you, I would recommend that you consider any stock options as a “potential bonus,” rather than a key part of your compensation for joining a startup. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

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Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 140

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

He’d wasted a year of his life and had a pile of stock options that weren’t very interesting. The Yin and Yang of Product and Engineering - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , May 22, 2010 For a tech company, product and engineering are the heart and soul of the business. Tesla is not. question at least once a month.

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Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

Fog Creek explicitly recognizes that many good software engineers have no desire whatsoever to do "management" or to take on a formal personnel management role. One of the purposes of the Fog Creek Professional Ladder is to create a career path with promotions for engineers who simply do not want to do management stuff at all.

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Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

Lead Engineer 0.5 - 1. 5+ years Experience Engineer 0.33 - 0.66. Manager or Junior Engineer 0.2 - 0.33. I am being offered a single digit percentage of outstanding shares, which I believe is based on the founder’s application of a share distribution as though I am in a CTO or a Director Of Engineering role.

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Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

crowdSPRING Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2014

Stock option questions startup employees should ask | Business Insider – crowdspring.co/1n8lUje. 44 engineering management lessons – crowdspring.co/1x7TVkf. Why entrepreneurs should learn to say “I don’t know” more often – crowdspring.co/1pGXXeF. ” – crowdspring.co/1slKVZ2.

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Social Media Small Business Design Media 97

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2022

For example, I was sort of a non-engineer jack of all trades when I worked at Linden Lab (makers of virtual world, err metaverse, Second Life). Extend Your Stock Option Exercise Period. Obviously this can be a bit tricky but in small companies when you have kind founders and you’ve been a great team member, it’s ok to ask.

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Stock Options Vesting Stock Valuation 94

prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

As a result, local universities here churn out thousands of new graduates each year who can spell Microsoft but understand nothing about proper software engineering. You work long hours at below-market rates for stock options, a chance to participate in the financial payout of the company’s success. Turns out, not so easy.

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Offshore Malaysia Developer Stock Options 40

The Next Web

MARCH 11, 2014

Then Ben [one of the mobile engineers on the team] suggested a concept around sticking pieces of media to friends and people in the real world. WhatsApp, recently acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock options , challenged traditional Silicon Valley logic. Curiously, I asked where the idea came from.

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Silicon Valley Cofounder Stock Options Mobile 151

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

A company that can employ thousands of engineers and designers, acquire companies, and support a creative working environment. An engineer. This person needs to be incredibly skilled in engineering, and should ideally be an experienced CTO. Try to be the next Steve Jobs, the next Elon Musk, the next Bill Gates.

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Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

The Next Web

OCTOBER 25, 2013

The design reinforces our commitment to small teams, as well as designers and engineers working alongside one another.”. Having a good balance between collaborative space and quiet space gives employee the option of being in a socially creative atmosphere or a peaceful area to crunch out the work. Sharing is caring.

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San Francisco Design Product Startup 167

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2011

Thus, stock doesn’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. Unless you have a sizable nest egg, or a working spouse with an income to support you, I would recommend that you consider any stock options as a “bonus,” rather than a key part of your compensation for joining a startup. Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

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Equity Advisory Board Stock Options Stock 234

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

than to have to deal with healthcare benefit options, vacation policies, health-and-safety regulations and so forth. Stock option top-ups after a few years are vital retention mechanisms. I promise you if there was no glue between sales, marketing, product and engineering we would have had greatly limited our growth curve.

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Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2010

Thus, stock doesn’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. Unless you have a sizable nest egg, or a working spouse with an income to support you, I would recommend that you consider any stock options as a “bonus,” rather than a key part of your compensation for joining a startup. Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

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Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 144

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Early in my climb I was hyper-focused on title and pay, realizing later that good health was like a stock option that pays off later. If you work for a toxic company or boss, look for an exit ramp before you are overtaken by events and can’t engineer your best plan. You are the first line of defense in a healthy ascent.

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Switzerland Private Equity Stock Options Equity 264

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Interestingly, one of the first things that you learn when you run an engineering organization is that a good Quality Assurance organization cannot build a high quality product, but it can tell you when the development team builds a low quality product. Do managers and recruiters follow up with candidates in a timely fashion? Compensation.

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Management Development Team Review Stock Options Technical Review 78

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2021

For instance, Steve Jobs had no engineering skill, but he had clear design ideas and knew how to build a great brand. If your vision is powerful enough, you can make up for this by offering recruits stock options. You cannot be a hero for all seasons, you need others to reduce the load off your shoulders.

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Limited Liability Company Silicon Valley Business Model Stock Options 163

BeyondVC

MAY 20, 2004

Jeff Nolan has a good overview of stock option expensing, and why we should get involved. While I agree for the need for complete transparency of stock options, I also do not believe that expensing all options at the grant date will get us closer to true economic reality.

Stock Options 60

Stock Options Stock Securities and Exchange Commission Option Pool 60

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 1, 2009

Head of Engineering 1.32%. Tags: Stock options. For example, below are the 2008 results for average equity granted at time of hire in IT companies: CEO 5.40%. President/COO 2.58%. Head of Technology/CTO 1.19%. Head of Sales 1.20%. Head of Marketing 0.91%. Head of Business Development 1.23%. Head of Human Resources 0.24%.

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Stock Options CTO Hire Equity 31

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 13, 2020

By being public, companies can better attract qualified employees with stock options, helping them buy into the long-term success of the business. As a result, organizations can now afford to seek out highly skilled developers and engineers to help them develop new, disruptive products. An added bonus?

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Canada Government Venture Capital Early Stage 127

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 31, 2017

I have spent a great deal of time studying the fundamentals of stocks, option trades, goal-setting, and public speaking. We feel a responsibility to make the world better, especially with our science and engineering backgrounds. I have been taught and mentored by some of the world’s top thought-leaders. We spent 2.5

Entrepreneur 63

Entrepreneur Stock Options Programming Washington 63

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2011

Stock options, if you get them, won’t help you pay the mortgage for a least a couple of years, and the value then is totally unpredictable. Every area has networking events, like the NYC Tech Meetup , and organizations like the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Engineers. Join local organizations.

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Silicon Valley Burn Rate Startup Stock Options 227

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

One one level, the design mindset is similar to the engineering mindset, in that it seeks to frame and understand a problem, and then solve that problem. One of the central lessons I learned from the Airbnb founders, which I now try to convey to other entrepreneurs I work with, is the power of the design mindset.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

She makes money for the platform that hosts her without receiving the legal and financial protections of employee status, or the stock options typically given to the platform’s engineers, designers, and managers. “What the creator economy promises, and what it actually does”, The New Yorker.

Startup 207

Startup Social Media Venture Capital Audio 207

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2024

Compensation’s charter is to approve stock option grants for any employee, no matter how small the grant, and all salary and benefits for at least the CEO if not the next level down, to avoid conflict of interest with the CEO. I engineered the extraction of the outside investors, even at a near total loss.

Covenant 48

Covenant Software Review Stock Options Vesting 48

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 24, 2013

Example conversation, which works whether the CEO is really interested in defining culture proactively or comes to the discussion with skepticism: Me : So you want to hire two engineers and a designer, right? CEO : Well for the engineer we want someone who has several years of Ruby experience and…… [fill in technical specs].

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Hiring Advisory Board Ruby Stock Options 103

Bryce Dot VC

MAY 21, 2013

is the virtually universal practice among tech companies of distributing meaningful equity (usually in the form of stock options) to ordinary employees. Before companies like Fairchild and Hewlett-Packard began the practice fifty years ago, distributing stock options to anyone other than top management was virtually unheard of.

Silicon Valley 40

Silicon Valley Stock Options Stock Distribution 40

OnlyOnce

JULY 7, 2011

We give stock options to every employee, and we regularly give additional grants to employees as well, as their initial grants vest, as they get promoted into more senior roles, and as they earn them through outstanding performance.

Stock Options 76

Stock Options Dividend Vesting Stock 76

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

Assuming normal valuations at fund raising rounds you’ll be down to 6-12% after you’ve created a stock-option pool and raised capital. But these people seldom make retirement money from the stock options on these companies. It you have a great software engineer that’s awesome.

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Founder Vesting Intellectual Property Stock Options IP 365

VC Adventure

SEPTEMBER 2, 2014

The Entrepreneurs Foundation at the Boulder Community Foundation has contributed more than $2 Million for local non-profits during the past two years through donations of stock options at the time of initial offerings (a circumstance unique to startups).

Community 91

Community Colorado America Denver 91

Eric Friedman

JUNE 11, 2019

The moves I have seen work here are: Fundraising Event – something is happening on the valuation of the company and you can get someone to start before a third party mark of the stock options/RSU package offered.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Stock Options Early Stage Agile 68

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

In other words, if I’m thinking about this just from a WP Engine perspective for a second as a potential customer, when you come up to me and say, “Meetings are awful because half of them don’t even have an agenda, and the ones that do, you don’t stick to it and they go long. Jason: Yeah. I already write agendas.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

the loan converts at 15-20% discout to the new money coming in) or your investor will get “warrant coverage&# which is similar to an employee stock option in that it gives the investor the right but not the obligation to invest in your company in the future at a defined priced.

Startup 290

Startup Burn Rate Warrant Bankruptcy 290

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The best composition is probably one engineer whose passion lies in the pixels on the screen and another engineer whose passion is making bits fly really fast through servers. is it really that the only people who can build great startups are engineers? Engineers don’t always have the best business ideas.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

Now is the time that you need “all hands on deck.&# That awesome gal you hired in engineering has job options and she knows it. And he has already vested 75% of his stock options at your company. Your biz dev guy has a Rolodex and friends bugging him to join their startup. They’re self centered.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

chrischandler.name

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

All the engineers I trust to execute a project swiftly, professionally and with quality, especially under startup conditions, will not touch an upfront equity deal with a 10-foot pole. A common trait among these engineers is an understanding of their own entrepreneurial value. Proof of execution is what matters today, not ideas.

Equity 40

Equity Developer Entrepreneur Syndicate 40