Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 19, 2020

In a couple of cases, the founders played lawyer on their own; in the other cases, the founders either used (i) a Web service that did not address IP issues or (ii) an inexperienced law firm. This would arise as a result of a founder improperly “moonlighting” (i.e., Any IP created by a founder (e.g.,

IP 52

IP Software Review Founder Technical Review 52

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. And I tried to evaluate the idea and figure out: What did the founder really need here? Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? And do I fit as a Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO ?

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

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

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

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. Vesting Restrictions. The first deadly mistake relates to vesting restrictions. Otherwise, if one of the founders quits after a few months, he would take all of his shares with him.

Vesting 89

Vesting Software Review IP Intellectual Property 89

NZ Entrepreneur

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Startup founders are our ambitious problem solvers. Addressing real world problems, they thrive in uncertainty, generating new jobs and new revenue streams in new markets. Startup founders are driven to solve problems and make a difference – many want to literally change the world. This equity will vest over 2-3 years.

Technical Review 88

Technical Review Software Review New Zealand Due Diligence 88

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

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. Success often comes from doing a few things extraordinarily well and noticeably better than the competition and is measured in customer feedback, product engagement, growth in usage and ultimately in revenue growth.

Software Review 150

Software Review Turkey Portfolio Syndicate 150

Transformify

DECEMBER 22, 2019

I’ve seen lots of startup founders making the same mistake – spending all the funding they have on headcount and expensive and inefficient marketing campaigns. It gets even worse if the first version of their product is not good enough to generate revenues. So, how to make affiliate marketing work for you? About the author.

Affiliate 91

Affiliate Revenue Churn Rate Programming 91

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. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

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

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

I had lunch last week with Tom, the CEO of a startup that was quickly becoming a large company – last year’s revenue was $40M, this year likely to be $80M maybe even $100 million in ad revenue. to drive traffic to their site, which they then turned into ad revenue. Refactoring” organizational debt. the company had.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 1, 2007 Entreprenuer Network Great post by Ben Kuo - The Importance of the “Network&# to Entrepreneurs - the informal connections between people in the technology industry here who have a vested interest in helping entrepreneurs take their companies to the next level.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Networking Southern California Los Angeles 150

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Many people have speculated a variety of revenue sources such as charging 3rd parties for their data, charging power users for their accounts, charging “verified users&# for their certified accounts, etc. The Founder & CEO of Ad.ly But many people naturally revert back to the question if they should just show ads.

Technical Review 286

Technical Review Advertising Early Stage Internet 286

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2013

The company with no revenue and a $150k burn rate that raised $2.5 I often wonder why they didn’t find a way to bring in some revenue to cover costs. Newsflash – if you had $75k revenue / month you’d have 8 months cash left in stead of 4. I see this weekly. million and has 4 months cash left. Your VC is right.

Burn Rate 412

Burn Rate Dilution Revenue Valuation 412

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. Co-founders are an entirely different discussion and I am not talking about them in this post. Startups should be able to dramatically increase the value of their equity over the four years a stock grant vests. There is no bracket  for the CEO and COO.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

As Kevin Hillstrom (founder of Mine That Data) told the story… Kevin Hillstrom: “A few weeks ago, I was going over the results of an A/B test with a client. The individual who had executed the test had a vested interested in making sure that ‘A’ was the winner. This is a common conundrum, as it turns out.

Vesting 48

Vesting Analytics Conversion Revenue 48

ithacaVC

AUGUST 10, 2011

“Should founders personally guaranty bank loans?” ” That is actually a funny question because for early startups, the founders cannot get bank loans. Perhaps the company has a bit of revenue, but certainly it is not profitable. Perhaps the company has a bit of revenue, but certainly it is not profitable.

Founder 69

Founder SBA Silicon Valley Vesting 69

Austin Startup

AUGUST 20, 2017

Set any vesting schedules and expiration dates on roughly similar terms, if for no other reason just so you can track all of them correctly. Kalanick, former investor BFF turned highly disappointed by founder behavior. Usually the founders duke it out among themselves as to titles and responsibilities and relative shareholdings.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Software Review Cap Table Securities and Exchange Commission 48

blog.simeonov.com

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Simeon, can you tell us how you structure ownership and control so you can fire your co-founders if necessary? The first part will dispel some myths, address the lifecycle of founder agreements and the key compensation and control parameters in them. Let’s start by dispelling some myths: There is a standard founder agreement.

Founder 44

Founder Vesting Agile Startup 44

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

This cheerleading often comes from those with vested interests, rather than from successful entrepreneurs who have successfully exited businesses and are looking to encourage the next generation. I am just a little jaded with the one-sided view that entrepreneurship is a panacea for all employment ills.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

Revenue multiple? I know how to structure around that to protect the founders from getting screwed on a multiple liquidation preference. But most VCs don’t bother so many convertible note founders get screwed and never know it until they sell their companies. of the time I have no vested interest in having the debate.

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

Up and Running

AUGUST 10, 2016

They are based out of Houston, Texas, and the founders have a proven track record (and clearly a large following). That money will be paid out over time and rather than tie the entrepreneurs to a fixed monthly payment, the entrepreneurs will pay back a percent of revenue each month (starting after the 5th month).

Securities and Exchange Commission 60

Securities and Exchange Commission Vesting Equity Houston 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2015

Most new entrepreneurs assume that great investors will find their startups based on the compelling solution the founders have created. If your startup has a proven revenue model, real customers and is ready to scale, approach the best investors even if it costs you more money. Temper your approach based on the stage of your startup.

Cost 120

Cost Angel Groups Due Diligence Silicon Valley 120

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. You’re a startup founder. You start fighting with your co-founder whom you thought you understood. And he has already vested 75% of his stock options at your company. This is part of my startup advice series.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

Scott Edward Walker

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Set-up vesting schedules for the founders (see post here ) and file 83(b) elections with the IRS (see #3 here ). Don’t issue stock options unless a proper option plan is in place and a valuation has been done in compliance with Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code (see post here ).

Accredited Investor 111

Accredited Investor Stock Options Delaware Silicon Valley 111

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

For this article, we asked 14 SaaS CEOs a simple question: “How much did you spend on your MVP before you had your first dollar of revenue?”. Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. million in revenue a year. . Qualified.io

Sweat Equity 78

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 78

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

There were two distinct classes of employee equity (issued by Intermix and MySpace, respectively) with different valuation and vesting situations—and, most significantly, a $125 million valuation cap applied to the buyout of MySpace equity that was triggered by the acquisition of Intermix. Read on for a fuller explanation. by February 2006).

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Gust

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Likewise, founders can benefit from understanding basic characteristics of the overall legal structure, formation and governance documents, rights and responsibilities of team members, etc. Determine who will serve on the Board of Directors and in executive officer positions (usually founders). Newco, Inc.”)

Intellectual Property 139

Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement Delaware Stock 139

Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2024

Start-ups with one founder rarely have or need a board of directors. As soon as any outside money is ingested into the corporation, others have a vested and legal interest in the behavior of officers entrusted with the best use of funds. In fact, such a board would seem out of place in a one-person company.

Covenant 48

Covenant Software Review Stock Options Vesting 48

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

A detailed financial model that shows your anticipated revenue, costs and profits (Income Statement) as well as your balance sheet and cashflow statements. VCs (and LPs) have a vested interest in having more data, whether they want to invest in your company / firm or not. They aren’t doing this viciously?—?they

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 27, 2015

We charge a flat fee of $2,000, plus filing fees, for up to three co-founders and it includes unlimited phone calls and emails. Thus, founders never have to worry about picking-up the phone and asking their lawyers questions. Indeed, we have done more than 300 Startup Packages and the appeal is obvious: no billable hours.

Intellectual Property 40

Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Vesting Delaware 40

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

3]   However, if they are built bottom up, they demonstrate and make explicit a range of business model assumptions the entrepreneur is using to think about his business and its revenue model. These include: ·       Vesting of Founder Stock. This is why a bottom up approach is more credible.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Hippoland

DECEMBER 18, 2016

Dear elizy : What’s reasonable for a founder salary? Your equity stake If you’re a “founder” brought into a startup a bit later and are given say 5% of the company (on a vesting schedule), this is very different from being an “original founder” who likely owned 25-50% of the business starting out.

Las Vegas 48

Las Vegas Salary Burn Rate San Francisco 48

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

Stock vests for 4 years. So when the Stanford MBA, the ex senior technology developer or the former Chief Revenue Officer of a company is calling me and asking my advice on their next gig you can see why I start with “are you ready to earn or to learn?&#. Ventro was trading at $8 billion on sub $2 million of revenue.

Stock Options 418

Stock Options Stock Liquidation Preference Option Pool 418

ithacaVC

OCTOBER 9, 2014

I have talked with several student and alumni founders over the past few weeks about pre-incorporation issues. Regardless, I hope you know what the revenue plan is. Who are your co-founders? I talk with many students who need a co-founder with a certain skill set. Tough to find a trustworthy co-founder.

Cofounder 61

Cofounder Vesting Equity Framework 61