Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

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.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Nowhere is the politics more difficult than with co-founders, which is why for years I’ve spoken publicly about “ the co-founder mythology.” ” Of course we all go into businesses expecting to be aligned with our co-founders but over time life changes. Equity for the future? We discussed it as a group.

Founder 340

Founder Sacramento Cofounder Technical Review 340

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 14, 2023

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 258

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Management Salary 258

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 23, 2023

If you find an A-player CIA officer jumping into a founder role mid-way in their career (or decide to start something yourself,) they’ll probably go on to do great things. Choose big for stability and higher salaries. The salaries are almost always higher. You may need to cover some portion of your own salary for a year.

Government 212

Government Advisory Board Salary Sales Cycle 212

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

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2020

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 310

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Salary Angel Investor 310

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 24, 2020

Remember that investors will not appreciate a business plan that features exorbitant salaries of the founders. Rustam Gilfanov is an IT company co-founder, IT businessman and international investor. Working on a business plan will help you understand how the business will grow. A brief curriculum vitae.

Business Plan 263

Business Plan Ukraine Cofounder Startup 263

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So, the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth?

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 26, 2019

You have to pay big salaries to get top-notch help. In my experience, the people who will best drive your business are ones who share your long-term vision, and are willing to work for a share of the business or delayed compensation, rather than a high salary in the short term. Trust is required, so build relationships slowly.

Bandwidth 246

Bandwidth Software Review Salary Angel Investor 246

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

MARCH 23, 2011

Otherwise, I suggest that founders be up-front with their employers, with an honest commitment that the “side” work on the potential startup will not jeopardize committed results. In a part-time effort, a co-founder is essential to keeping you on-track and working. Pick a day and time per week where you always work together.

Founder 233

Founder Startup Cofounder Angel Investor 233

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

With all other things equal, that means that a 50/50 split between two co-founders (evenly split if there are more than two), or a 66/33 split based on the premium for coming up with the original idea, and for starting the initial development efforts and sourcing the original team. Is this person taking a salary or not?

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Recent research has shown that a startup’s chances of success is actually inversely related to the amount of financial remuneration its founders give themselves; that is, the less the founders pay themselves, the higher their chances of success. Others infographic salary salary expectations startup'

Salary 176

Salary Silicon Valley Startup Founder 176

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate.

CTO Hire 329

CTO Hire Equity Seed Stage Option Pool 329

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 29, 2018

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 223

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Startup Salary 223

Board Effect

DECEMBER 29, 2021

Salary Increases in Nonprofits . In the spirit of pay equity, salary increases can’t be arbitrary or inconsistent. . Nonprofit Salary Transparency . On one front, a new campaign with the slogan “#ShowTheSalary ” seeks to promote pay equity by encouraging employers to list salaries along with job listings.

Equity 105

Equity Salary Software Review Iowa 105

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 26, 2020

Most startup founders voluntarily exit or are pushed out, and the fun is gone. On the other hand, “competitive” salaries will likely go up, and health and retirement benefits will jump to a new level. Analysts want escalating profits. Public companies bring new expectations of benefits.

Cost 319

Cost IPO Exit Strategy Initial Public Offering 319

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 29, 2014

This week I wrote about obsessive and competitive founders and how this forms the basis of what I look for when I invest. We had raised a $2 million seed round, which meant taking almost no salary so we could afford to hire staff. So even after raising a $16 million A-round I still paid myself a paltry salary. Literally. .

Founder 409

Founder Salary Startup Early Stage 409

The Next Web

JANUARY 14, 2014

If you’re a startup founder, how much should you pay yourself? The company collected salary data from 11,160 startups around the world that use its benchmarking tool. In Silicon Valley, 75% of founders pay themselves less than $75,000 per year and 66% pay themselves less than $50,000 per year, according to the data.

Salary 167

Salary Silicon Valley San Francisco Founder 167

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 31, 2020

by Roland Polzin , MBA and Co-founder of Wing AI. Alternatively, individual VA contractors can be hired for a monthly salary, or workers for short gigs can be found via Fiverr or TaskRabbit. Roland Polzin is co-founder and the CMO of Wing AI , and a 2020 MBA of the Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine.

Artificial Inteligence 214

Artificial Inteligence Mali Management Technical Review 214

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." The first few people into a startup are on a spectrum of founder vs. early employee. Founders are likely not paid for a long time and have a sizeable equity percentage for early risk and having the concept.

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

This is going to be BIG.

NOVEMBER 24, 2014

When I was coming out of college, working in finance, I used to think a lot about my salary. I liked maxing out on raises and I liked the feeling I got getting to a six figure salary. It was, in my mind, what the salary meant. Founders, I think the best thing you can do with your earliest employees is to be transparent.

Salary 130

Salary Venture Capital Equity Finance 130

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 10, 2017

by Mark Gilbert, founder and CEO of MBS Accounting Technology & Advisory. Founders overlook how their salary looks to investors. >Investors If they see large expenses going into the founders’ pockets – and not into their business- investors will likely turn the other way.

Software Review 124

Software Review Technical Review Due Diligence Startup 124

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. Every Flexible VC structure allows founders to access immediate risk capital while preserving exit, growth trajectory, and ownership optionality. . Flexible VC 102: Variations.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Many entrepreneurs I have mentored make big mistakes in this area, by hiring low-cost friends and family, with minimal skills or training, and expecting them to have the same work ethic , passion, and business knowledge as the founder. times base salary range, not including space and equipment requirements.

Technical Review 308

Technical Review Due Diligence Startup Employee 308

The Next Web

APRIL 27, 2014

Ilya Pozin is the founder of Open Me and Ciplex and is a columnist for Inc, Forbes and LinkedIn. What if everyone at your company knew your salary? One of the newest company culture trends is the transparent salary, where organizations make the salaries of all employees public knowledge within the company. Now, you can.

Salary 160

Salary Lean Web Employee 160

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

When I was interviewed for my first startup CEO job, I was expecting a $150,000 salary, but instead was offered an opportunity to contribute $50,000 to the business, and work for equity only. For example, a web-based startup should be able to operate for a year if they raise $500,000 from the founders or angels. Great strategy.

Burn Rate 232

Burn Rate Startup Salary Equity 232

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 5, 2014

Deferred payments start with stretching the payables period but, more importantly, include giving employee equity in lieu of a higher salaries and negotiating vendor deferred payments out of future revenues. This could equate to two technical founders (with a minimal salary), funding two developers for a year.

Burn Rate 262

Burn Rate Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Salary 262

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup is the new book by David Cohen , founder and CEO of TechStars, and Brad Feld , managing director of Foundry Group. Below is his chapter, Avoid Co-Founder Conflict. A perennial favorite is to decide that each founder should own an equal share. For what reasons?

Cofounder 128

Cofounder Founder Equity Dilution 128

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. I like to say that “there are only co-founders” — it’s extraordinarily rare for a successful business to have just a sole founder.

Equity 315

Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

SoCal CTO

MAY 10, 2011

A long-time friend and colleague, Steve Wexler, who is great at visualization took my Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data and produced a really need interactive visualization via Tableau. You can click on the filters such as Founder Status (#3) and Job Title (#4) to filter to that particular data. Most non-founders have less than 2%.

Salary 198

Salary Equity San Francisco Dilution 198

Berkonomics

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Fixed overhead for salaries, rent, equipment leases and more make up the majority of the “burn rate” (monthly expenses) for most companies. We’ll get to my heartbreak in a minute. But first… There is a relationship between time and money that is more complex than most managers think.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Burn Rate Angel Investor Down Round 118

The Equity Kicker

AUGUST 23, 2012

Seth Levine of the Foundry Group has a blog post up today on CEO and founder salaries. I’ve been saying for years now that founder salaries should start at these sorts of levels and then rise to what would be market for the skillset in a larger company environment as the company gets to scale and/or profitability.

Salary 103

Salary San Francisco New York Founder 103

SoCal CTO

MAY 10, 2011

A long-time friend and colleague, Steve Wexler, who is great at visualization took my Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data and produced a really need interactive visualization via Tableau. You can click on the filters such as Founder Status (#3) and Job Title (#4) to filter to that particular data. Most non-founders have less than 2%.

Salary 175

Salary Equity San Francisco Dilution 175

The Entrepreneurial Mind

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

There is no one best way to divide equity among co-founders and set founder salaries. Keep the equity equal among founders and keep your base-salaries the same. I am generally an advocate of one for all and all for one.

Cofounder 52

Cofounder Equity Founder Salary 52

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 16, 2020

Stop founder salaries. During the good times, founders may shop around for the best terms on a financing round. Startups in rapid growth mode are not cash-efficient, but simple business changes can add weeks or months of runway. Examples include: Max out credit cards. Delay vendor payments. Halt inventory orders.

Recapitalization 200

Recapitalization Forecast Software Review Finance 200