Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 6, 2023

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. My best advice is to stick to the middle ground. Marty Zwilling

Technical Review 296

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 296

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

The next default of waiting until later is equally bad, since partners who bow out early will still expect an equal share of that first billion you make later. Even with an agreed initial equity split, it’s smart to have Founder’s stock actually issue or vest over a period of at least two years, on a month-by-month basis.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 18, 2020

As part of The Startup Magazine Female Founder series , we sat down with award-winning entrepreneur Elizabeth Colón. The organization also offers leadership training, speaking opportunities and savings through our partner programs that will more than pay for a member’s participation each year. to advocate for the 11.6 Elizabeth Colón.

Founder 158

Founder Chicago LLC Leadership 158

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2020

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 436

Technical Review Due Diligence Sweat Equity Burn Rate 436

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2023

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 207

Sweat Equity Burn Rate Technical Review Intellectual Property 207

Version One Ventures

MARCH 29, 2024

Businesses and devs can easily incorporate tokenized US stocks and ETFs into their offerings with Dinari’s REST API or smart contracts. If anyone wants to build the “Robinhood for their country” that offers US stocks and ETFs on their platforms, this is the way. Dinari launched its B2B API and managed account services.

Portfolio 82

Portfolio Software Review San Francisco API 82

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of partners: The technical guru. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The financial suit.

Technical Cofounder 308

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 308

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

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. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 24, 2021

The Founder needs to remember that meetings up to this point have been primarily off-site, with staged demos, and managed personally by the CEO or a small team. Visit reference customers, partners, and vendors. My best advice is to stick to the middle ground. Marty Zwilling.

Technical Review 379

Technical Review Due Diligence Term Sheet Bankruptcy 379

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Founder 325

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

During Jeff Immelt’s tenure GE’s stock-market value fell by about half. Its stock is trading where it was 20 years ago. So far in 2017, GE is the worst performing stock on the Dow Jones Industrial average. In 2015 Trian Partners, an activist investor, bought $2.5 billion of GE stock – about 1.5%

Institutional Investors 233

Institutional Investors Dividend Stock Technical Review 233

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. Risk capital takes equity (stock ownership) in your company instead of debt (loans) in exchange for cash. VC’s raise money from their investors (limited partners like pension funds) and then spread their risk by investing in a number of startups (called a portfolio).

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

Founders do not have this luxury. Most founders are going through hell right now, and that is not going away any time soon. Others are just starting out, but the financial safety net they thought they had from a spouse’s job or highly appreciated stock options has disappeared. Wait and see. This is scary. Number of Investments.

Cofounder 194

Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2024

Start-ups with one founder rarely have or need a board of directors. Then along comes either money or contracts from strategic or financial investors or partners. These events, one or all, usually are triggers for the founders to seek to create a board for oversight and guidance. The number of employees grows.

Covenant 48

Covenant Software Review Stock Options Vesting 48

ReadWriteStart

JULY 5, 2023

Neko Health is well positioned to achieve its goals, as the board of directors recently welcomed notable investors such as Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder of Skype, and Klaus Hommels, founder of the venture capital firm Lakestar.

Sweden 126

Sweden Artificial Inteligence Cofounder Technical Review 126

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Taking stock of the venture capital market in 2023, it’s clear to see that we’re in a transition point. Most founders reported (in several different surveys) that knowledge and belief in their industry/sector and personal connection is one of the key reasons they would choose one investor over another.

Venture Capital 215

Venture Capital Technical Review LP Institutional Investors 215

VC Cafe

JANUARY 14, 2022

Given that some of these new stocks have low trading volume, in practice the lock up period can be longer. Anecdotally, one founder complained to me that this has shorten his runway by 30%. Several discussions on social media have founders asking if they should hedge their FOREX risk. Global tech correction.

Technical Review 158

Technical Review Lock-up Period South Korea 158

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 23, 2014

In reality, so-called “Founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. Here are some typical special terms and considerations for Founder’s stock: Negligible real value.

Stock 256

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 256

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2021

When an entrepreneur first incorporates a business, they may find themselves the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. Spread stock issuance over an earning period. Key founder vesting should have no cliff.

Vesting 298

Vesting Dilution Stock Founder Vesting 298

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 29, 2018

I’ll never forget that great sense of excitement I felt when I incorporated my first business, and realized that I was now the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock. Of course, initially these founder’s shares were worth essentially nothing, but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to grasp the possibilities.

Stock 129

Stock Vesting Preferred Stock Cofounder 129

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

John Borchers, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Decathlon Capital, claims to be the largest revenue-based financing investor in the US. Feenix Venture Partners has a unique investment model that couples investment capital with payment processing services.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder – Nick Halstead. What Rob wrote in his post is right. Wallflower – yours truly.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

I read commentary or Twitter or blogs and realize that there are also strongly held convictions that there are these evil VCs who do terrible things to mostly altruistic founders. Executives run the day-to-day so often the board is more involved as a sparring partner at key intervals. That’s true.

Cofounder 217

Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

A business plan is drawn up to attract investors and partners. At this stage, the founder mainly raises funding from their sources or family and friends. At this stage, since the company has created a presence for itself, the founder turns to Venture Capitalists to secure funding for further company growth. 3) Company formation.

Technical Review 145

Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 145

ReadWriteStart

JULY 12, 2023

Company founders originally called it Evelozcity and imagined a subscription-based business model in which they produced electric vans and trucks for people who enjoy outdoor activities. With share prices below $1 , delisting from the stock exchange is a real possibility. Q: How has the federal government helped Canoo?

United States 127

United States Government Startup California 127

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. Since NewTV won’t be making the content, they will be licensing from and partnering with traditional entertainment producers. ” Fire, Ready, Aim. He just hired Meg Whitman.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

VC Cafe

JULY 21, 2020

If you’re a startup founder, you’re probably looking at Google in some way, maybe in terms of partnership or acquisition, but maybe some level of suspicion and fear. A relationship with Google can take many forms, which I will detail in this post as a guide for founders exploring their relationship with big tech.

Technical Review 131

Technical Review Startup Early Stage Cloud 131

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 9, 2014

Founders stock, and stock options, will be worth nothing for the first several years, if not forever. The partner most obsessed with the startup lifestyle tests the water by going to work in an early-stage startup, similar to one they might hope to start someday. Who gets stock options, and how many?

Technical Review 250

Technical Review Stock Options Due Diligence Silicon Valley 250

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

He gives a wealth of practical advice on building a successful technical startup, including some specifics that I like on what constitutes a dream team of partners: The technical guru. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. Outsourcing your core competency does not work. The financial suit.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Founders. Should founders have anti-dilution rights?

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 14, 2022

Bob is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Acceleration Partners, a global partner marketing agency. He is also the Co-founder and Chairman of BrandCycle. 9:14] How do I find partners? [12:58] 12:58] Is there an example case on finding partners that you’d like to go through with us? [15:43]

Marketing 89

Marketing Affiliate Channel Software Review 89

The Startup Magazine

JULY 7, 2020

He has since gone on to grow his stock trading enterprise into a $5.23 More interestingly, he is a successful entrepreneur with his series of stock trading training programs where he reveals the strategies behind his trading success. Apart from being a renowned stock trader, Timothy Sykes is also a serial entrepreneur.

Stock 103

Stock LLC Portfolio Entrepreneur 103

Gust

MARCH 16, 2014

In reality, so-called “Founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate with their investment or role. Here are some typical special terms and considerations for Founder’s stock: Negligible real value.

Stock 175

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 175

View from Seed

MARCH 24, 2021

7 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in VC Pitches and How to Fix Them “Different partners in a VC firm are different. Doing Reference Checks on VCs “Try to speak to at least one founder that the investor has worked with in a failed investment. ” (Lee Hower). ” (David Beisel). This is not always easy to do.

Seed Stage 177

Seed Stage Hiring IPO Analytics 177

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. Why you should set up a board at the seed round of funding I know these days with SAFE documents and rolling convertible notes many founders prefer not to set up a board early on.

Venture Capital 236

Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2015

When an entrepreneur first incorporates his or her business, he or she may find him or herself the proud owner of 10 million shares of common stock, commonly called founder’s shares. Make sure the government waits for a stock sale to collect taxes. Spread stock issuance over an earning period. In the U.S.,

Stock 120

Stock Vesting Common Stock Founder Vesting 120