Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. Because we were so busy in the last 3 months, I did not had a chance to talk to the founders about my compensation for the time spent and future salary etc.

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CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 167

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. Because we were so busy in the last 3 months, I did not had a chance to talk to the founders about my compensation for the time spent and future salary etc.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 150

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. There are a lot of variables to go into calculating a fair equity split a startup team. Is this person taking a salary or not?

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Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. The first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Now comes the reality check.

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Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2022

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire or better? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

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Stock Options Advisory Board Stock Startup 343

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Of course, not every equity compensation story is a David Choe Story. 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. In this article, I’m going to examine: What equity compensation is. Different types of equity compensation.

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Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

VC Adventure

AUGUST 16, 2020

Some feel that, especially for early employees, options should act as a reward for taking startup risk. Many startups use option packages to compete with the larger current comp packages of bigger, more established businesses. Many founders feel that it’s equitable to have everyone share in the upside and feel like owners.

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Programming Vesting Equity Software Review 149

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire or better? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

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Equity Stock Options Advisory Board Stock 237

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 10, 2016

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 8, 2015

Every startup founder loves to prompt for questions from investors and potential key team members about their vision, and the huge opportunity that can be had with their disruptive technology. Early stage burn rates over $50K per month, or a runway of less than six months may indicate an inefficient or desperate startup.

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Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. Below, Lee Hower offers advice for approaching these equity discussions objectively and properly. Sometimes co-founders put off the equity split question for some time.

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Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

David Teten

MAY 7, 2019

Do you have a great team at your seed startup, but your product just isn’t working? Would you like to have a salary from day one that you work full-time on your startup? We are a nonpartisan, bipartisan startup of concerned Americans. We agree on an equity split, vesting, and initial compensation structure.

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America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. While technical debt is an understood problem, it turns out startups also accrue another kind of debt – one that can kill the company even quicker – organizational debt. And Tom wasn’t going to get it from his board.

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Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Employee Equity: How Much? The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. And the amount of equity you need to grant to accomplish these hires is also an art and most certainly not a science.

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Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

As a result, one of the trickier things co-founders tackle is determining the equity split amongst the founding group of individuals. Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits.

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Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

David Teten

JULY 10, 2019

pre-launch, BIG equity, big peeps involved–ANY TIPS?? Do you have a great team at your seed startup, but your product just isn’t working? Would you like to have a salary from day one that you work full-time on your startup? We are a nonpartisan, bipartisan startup of concerned Americans.

America 60

America Technical Review Advisory Board Due Diligence 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2011

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Microsoft when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for when I join a startup today?” By the way, you will normally only be offered “options,” which vest over a 4-year period after a 1-year “cliff.”

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Equity Advisory Board Stock Options Stock 234

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. Equity for Consultants – Keep it Simple! posted Feb 3 in Equity , People issues. The most you lose is 1 or 2 months of vesting on the stock. A View from the Valley. Blog blog archive. About Matt.

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Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. 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. the better the startup will be.

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Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

As a result, one of the trickier things co-founders tackle is determining the equity split amongst the founding group of individuals. Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits.

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Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2017

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire or better? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. 7% Product Manager,2 -.3%

Stock 140

Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 140

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2013

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for when I join a startup today?” By the way, you will normally only be offered “options,” which vest over a 4-year period after a 1-year “cliff.”

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Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 224

Andrew Payne

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

I’ve probably had a thousand or more discussions about startup equity: figuring out how much to offer, negotiating, or advising others. One-percent of startup A may have a vastly different potential value than 1% of startup B. For example, if four co-founders agree to equal equity, they each own 25% at the very outset.

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Equity Founder Vesting Dilution 71

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for when I join a startup today?” By the way, you will normally only be offered “options,” which vest over a 4-year period after a 1-year “cliff.”

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Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 230

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2015

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Facebook when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for or expect when I join a startup today?” Thus, options don’t “pay the mortgage” today, so to speak. Advisory Board Member, 1% Senior Engineer,3 -.7%

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Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 120

www.payne.org

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Startup Equity For Employees. 4 Vesting. 7 Salary vs Equity. The re-heating of the venture funded tech market has pushed a heat up of the hiring market, and Im getting more calls from friends asking for help understanding startup stock (equity) offers. From Payne.org Wiki. 3 Dilution. References.

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Equity Employee Vesting Preferred Stock 56

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

It is increasingly popular to have “founder dating&# or “startup weekend hackathons&# of some variety or the other. Give them a large sum of equity. Vested over 4 years. They don’t want the risk of the first 3-6 months with no salary and having to walk around with a tin-cup for funding. That’s OK.

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Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 18, 2015

Bloomberg’s article about lower-than-expected financial gains from startup IPOs for midlevel employees stuck in craw this week because there’s a handful of complex issues at play here. Even in successful companies, most initial equity grants will be worth a few hundred thousand dollars to perhaps $1-2m, when fully vested.

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Equity Employee IPO Vesting 48

Feld Thoughts

JULY 29, 2011

Finance Friday’s gets off the ground with today’s post by introducing you to an imaginary startup, the entrepreneurs that we’ll being following throughout the series, and their first challenges: splitting up the founders’ equity and addressing the case where one of the founders provides the initial seed capital for the business.

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Equity Finance Pre-Money Valuation Denver 137

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

This post doesn’t going into general tactical approaches of job offer negotiation, but rather focuses on the fact that with startups a significant part of compensation is related to equity or options. So optimizing a startup offer involves not just one key figure – salary – but also the option package.

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Startup Equity Vesting Salary 121

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 10, 2018

Even though your equity is unlikely to make you rich , there are plenty examples of when it does to extraordinary levels. That salary never came back. Don’t assume everyone can just eat ramen and sleep on vesting options. And it doesn’t always end up in the hands of diverse, hardest working or ethical people.

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Silicon Valley San Francisco Vesting .Net 195

Up and Running

JANUARY 23, 2013

If you’re interested in startups, especially working with one, you should read 17 Simple Tips On Working At A Startup , posted in LinkedIn by Dharmesh Shaw of the very popular Hubspot and the onstartups.com blog. . Working for all equity or all cash is not likely the right answer. Life is short. Learn to balance risk.

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Vesting Dilution Startup Salary 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2010

Wouldn’t you like to be one of the lucky people who joined Google and Microsoft when these were startups, and now be a multi-millionaire? So people ask me “How many shares should I ask for when I join a startup today?” By the way, you will normally only be offered “options,” which vest over a 4-year period after a 1-year “cliff.”

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Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 144

Hippoland

DECEMBER 18, 2016

Dear elizy : What’s reasonable for a founder salary? For example: I’ve got 13 years of professional experience, an MBA and I have run several of my own businesses. -Salary Concerns in LA Dear Salary Concerns: Hmm…lots of thoughts here… 1) Your MBA doesn’t matter here Sorry.

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Las Vegas Salary Burn Rate San Francisco 48

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

August 20, 2017: This is another in my series of posts all leading up to a book on Startup Decision Making. One of the most common mistakes I see in startups is making decisions that lose sight of the context , including the past, present, and future. Sooner or later everybody in a startup knows what everyone else is getting paid.

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Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

ithacaVC

SEPTEMBER 17, 2015

I often get questions about startup job offers. But if you are title “crazed” in your startup job search, I think you are misguided. Said another way, if I were interviewing you for a job at a startup and you were title crazed I would never hire you. Equity packages are either stock options or restricted stock.

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Startup Stock Options Vesting Equity 40