VC Adventure

AUGUST 16, 2020

It strikes me that many founders never really consider this question. Many founders feel that it’s equitable to have everyone share in the upside and feel like owners. But it will also change the nature of your workforce if you only hire employees that can work for well below market cash comp.

Programming 149

Programming Vesting Equity Software Review 149

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2011

I covered what I call “the co-founder mythology.&# Either you’re not technical and you think you need a technical co-founder or vice-versa. It is increasingly popular to have “founder dating&# or “startup weekend hackathons&# of some variety or the other. Hire your co-founder. Who gets 30%?

Cofounder 393

Cofounder Founder Vesting Founder Vesting 393

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value. Founders ignore non-compete clauses from former employers.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

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. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 120

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Startup founders are our ambitious problem solvers. experiments to build a product, find customers, test business models and hire amazing people. experiments to build a product, find customers, test business models and hire amazing people. This equity will vest over 2-3 years. Underpinning this growth is good governance.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

If you haven’t yet heard about Female Founder Office Hours it is an initiative you should be aware of whether you’re male, female or any other gender identify. Female Founder Office Hours gives founders the mentorship and the role models to see that it is in not only possible but also to have a plan to make it a reality.

Founder 256

Founder San Francisco Deal Flow Los Angeles 256

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Question My co-founders and I are working on a cool new site, and we’ll be ready to launch in a few weeks. We have no money – so we’re going to do the legal ourselves. (And please don’t tell us to hire a lawyer.) Vesting Restrictions. The first deadly mistake relates to vesting restrictions.

Vesting 89

Vesting Software Review IP Intellectual Property 89

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. Most founders like to talk about their many months or years of sweat-equity , but cash invested is a stronger commitment.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 120

Hunter Walker

JULY 2, 2022

Most hiring processes start with an antiquated assumption that companies select people to work for them. Here are a few tips we’ve been giving portfolio founders: Limit the Time Between The Offer and Start Date. Get them on your benefits, start vesting their stock and so on. Involve Their Family/Partners.

Hiring 93

Hiring Vesting Early Stage Stock 93

Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

Stock options are issued to employees usually through an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) and include what is called a “vesting period.” The vesting period, often three or four years, frees up a percentage of the options for the employee to purchase the longer they stay at the company. See Also: How to Hire Your First Employee.

Equity 60

Equity Employee Stock Options Vesting 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How many of their founders are still with their company? How many of their founders are still with their company? Will they tailor your vesting to your contribution as a founder?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

While he kept bringing the conversation back to their big valuation I tried to steer the conversation back to how they were going to deal with: training the influx of new hires – in both culture and job specific tasks. retaining their existing hires who were working for intern-like salaries with little equity. the company had.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters. They fail to include vesting terms (i.e.,

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2019

In tech startups stock options were here almost from the beginning, first offered to the founders in 1957 at Fairchild Semiconductor , the first chip startup in Silicon Valley. The investors were giving away part of their ownership of the company — not just to the founders, but to all employees. Here’s why.

Stock Options 333

Stock Options Stock Vesting Common Stock 333

www.thedailymuse.com

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

We’re Hiring. What Start-ups Should Know About Hiring a Lawyer. Hiring and working with a lawyer is often confusing and daunting, especially if you’ve never done it before. What should new entrepreneurs look for when hiring a lawyer? Hiring employees. Get Involved. Meet the Team. Job Search. Break Room.

Hiring 56

Hiring LLC Intellectual Property Private Equity 56

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. I never hire job hoppers. You’re a startup founder. You have tough choices to make about whom you hire on your team. You start fighting with your co-founder whom you thought you understood. That’s OK.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. founder fighting. founder fighting. Both are right.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. Hire a CEO to Go Public. A pre-IPO board usually had two founders, two VCs and one “independent” member.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

The Startup Magazine

JULY 19, 2020

Many law firms simply use the last name of their founder, or combine multiple names together. Competition can be tough among law firms, so it’s important to hire a developer to build you a website that stands out from the crowd. Hire Capable Staff. This is an excellent idea, especially if your last name is easy to pronounce.

Vesting 151

Vesting Reputation Hiring Community 151

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business. So my advice to CTO / Founders?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Andrew Payne

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

If an early very experienced developer has 1%, and a less senior dev has 0.5%, those become two reference points for the next dev hire. But, how should founders divide things up in the very beginning , where none of these internal reference points exist? And, how can founders talk about percentages before any funding?

Equity 71

Equity Founder Vesting Dilution 71

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. Today, in steps 10-12 I want to discuss with you raising your first round of money, hiring to develop and maintain your company culture, as well as defining your role in the management of your startup. 60-70% for founders.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 18, 2015

And even this can’t stop their employees from fleeing after two years of vesting to move on to the next hot startup. Hire fewer employees until you’re bursting at the seems with work for the ones you have. For investors life is no different. And do the things that you ARE doing better and with higher quality.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters. They fail to include vesting terms (i.e.,

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2009

Yesterday I wrote a blog post ( here ) in which I urged people to not have too many founders. What if the person performs OK, but not great and you need to hire above him? These situations are only compounded if you have 3 or more founders. They agreed to all be co-founders. Who prevails? That’s great.

Founder 251

Founder Cofounder Equity Stock Options 251

techcrunch.com

JUNE 22, 2012

This is where a lot of founders get stuck. Not to mention, once the founder and advisor have nominally agreed to a relationship, law firms enter the mix and seed the new advisor with a mountain of paperwork — legal agreements, options agreements — documents stuffed with legalese and binding statements.

Equity 94

Equity San Francisco Startup Silicon Valley 94

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

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. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. First, a caveat.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2010

As a founder I fought with VC’s over vesting as they brought in a new CEO and walked me out the door. As a board member I negotiated with founding CEO’s over vesting when I thought it was their time to go. The fallacy is believing that a founders value is evenly distributed over four years. Preparing For Chaos.

Vesting 251

Vesting Liquidity Event Venture Capital Founder Vesting 251

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

These are really good founders and I think this is an interesting space.” Further, when additional people kept mentioning Airbnb to me and praising the founders, I should have asked myself how a smart, capable person would refine the idea.). Those two minutes showed me that Airbnb’s founders wanted to play in the big leagues.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Hiring is a chapter unto itself, but it deserves to lead off any discussion of context. Compensation decisions obviously affect hiring and retention. You can’t be too careful in determining comp packages for your new hires. Kalanick, former investor BFF turned highly disappointed by founder behavior.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

Gust

APRIL 9, 2014

The Founder of a company starts by owning all the shares representing ownership of the company. Therefore, to avoid dilution to its existing equity holders, all a company has to do is not hire any more employees who get options, or take any more money from investors. Uncategorized company equity dilution founder investors startup'

Dilution 150

Dilution Equity Vesting Stock Options 150

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

Great founders are always recruiting. I’m a big proponent of startups hiring talented high-ceiling people who are earlier in their careers and haven’t necessarily yet done the job they’re being recruited for. You’ll be setting the new hire up for success and this should pay off in multiples. Let me know! Notes and More.

Advisory Board 150

Advisory Board Equity Vesting Startup 150

www.mattbartus.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Perspectives on issues affecting founders, startups and investors from a veteran startup lawyer in Silicon Valley. We will grant him/her X% fully diluted shares up front, and every time he/she makes an introduction, he/she will vest in 100 shares.” The most you lose is 1 or 2 months of vesting on the stock. Quora Answers.

Equity 40

Equity Vesting Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2013

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value. Founders ignore non-compete clauses from former employers. Marty Zwilling.

Non-Compete 235

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Startup Cofounder 235

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2022

In these moments there tends to be a lot of content to help CEOs and founders manage through a downturn, but not as much for those team members impacted. 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. Extend Your Stock Option Exercise Period.

Stock Options 94

Stock Options Vesting Stock Valuation 94

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2012

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value. Founders ignore non-compete clauses from former employers.

Non-Compete 249

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder Startup 249

The Next Web

JUNE 21, 2015

I felt like I read about their experiment with vested interest – personally, I could not imagine how a company could run with no managers. Nah, usually in the beginning, things like PR are done by the co-founders or whoever else has time. And for that very reason, I wanted to see Buffer make it work.

PR 60

PR Startup Software Review Technical Review 60