Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2020

Adopt the Silicon Valley entrepreneur family model. When I lived in Silicon Valley where “everyone” was an entrepreneur, I noticed that smart couples followed the strategy that both partners would never be in startups at the same time. Founders stock and stock options are worth nothing for the first few years.

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Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. In terms of access to capital, Austin is not Silicon Valley or New York — but it is Austin. If you’ve just exited or realised stock options from a Silicon Valley success story, moving out of state is worthwhile.

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The Next Web

MARCH 11, 2014

WhatsApp, recently acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock options , challenged traditional Silicon Valley logic. While best practices exist, most startups fail and some of the most successful are outliers, built on anti-patterns.

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Up and Running

DECEMBER 1, 2015

If however you are giving a “normal employee” an incentive stock option plan (more on that later), that’s entirely different. Make sure you understand all of your options before making any decisions. When business owners decide to go down the route of equity compensation, there are two primary options to choose between.

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prosperati.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Silicon Valley is a great place for technology startups in no small part due to its culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. You work long hours at below-market rates for stock options, a chance to participate in the financial payout of the company’s success. Culture creation is not easy. Turns out, not so easy.

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Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

I don’t have an MBA and I don’t live in Silicon Valley. Stock Option. That likelihood goes down if you are not in Silicon Valley or Boston. Angel investors come from a variety of ages, backgrounds, and professions. I’m not your average angel. I’m a mom, a full-time sales manager, and recruiter.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2015

There is a second set of career discussions I have even more frequently than my “angel yourself” advice but this type is almost never discussed publicly in blogs, which tend to emphasize only billion-dollar opportunities, 20-something technical founders and Silicon Valley elitism.

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Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one. The Greenshoe is an over-allotment of stock options, up to 15% of the total offering at time of IPO.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

He tells the story of how he was out of cash, stressed out, nobody in LA or Silicon Valley would give him money, he had finally found an investor in Minneapolis but his venture bank was going to shut him down for breaking a “covenant&# in their agreement by not having enough cash in the bank. And he said ok got it.

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The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. That includes us. As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1

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Bryce Dot VC

MAY 21, 2013

“ “There are fifty or so billionaires and tens of thousands of millionaires in Silicon Valley.” The defining difference between Silicon Valley companies and almost every other industry in the U.S. The defining difference between Silicon Valley companies and almost every other industry in the U.S.

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ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 29, 2012

A lot of people in Silicon Valley are down on job-hoppers these days. But it turns out that all that job-hopping is an important part of what makes the Valley so special. That’s Silicon Valley over the past few years. Job Hopping Makes Silicon Valley Hum. That’s why we have Silicon Valley.

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Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

Imagine if you’re in Silicon Valley right now with no equity in a tech startup, but associated with several people getting six figure “bonuses” because they somehow wound up with some stock in one. The Greenshoe is an over-allotment of stock options, up to 15% of the total offering at time of IPO.

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Scalable Startup

AUGUST 9, 2018

Pre-launch funding is pretty common in Silicon Valley, but that’s a unique case. But to get that Silicon Valley angel funding you have to be part of that social network; most of the rest of the world doesn’t have that frothy environment. Option Two: Post-Launch?—?Raise They’re betting on you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 6, 2012

Stock options, if you get them, won’t help you pay the mortgage for a least a couple of years, and the value then is totally unpredictable. So here’s a strategy I recommend (definitely the most common strategy in Silicon Valley). Don’t even think about health and dental benefits for your spouse and kids.

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The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2021

Although the media has been full of inspiring stories about start-ups in Silicon Valley, the reality is that the rate at which Americans have been starting companies has been in decline for a long time. If your vision is powerful enough, you can make up for this by offering recruits stock options.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2011

Stock options, if you get them, won’t help you pay the mortgage for a least a couple of years, and the value then is totally unpredictable. So here’s a strategy I recommend (definitely the most common strategy in Silicon Valley). Don’t even think about health and dental benefits for your spouse and kids.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2015

It was part Silicon Valley insider and part marketing huckster. Mostly we read business books designed for established enterprise and tried to read through the lines to find ways to apply their wisdom to startups. But there was one exception, Guy Kawasaki''s The Art of the Start.

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Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

It also puts another chink in the armor of the meme that monster internet companies can only be built in Silicon Valley (LivingSocial, Kayak, Gilt Groupe, CSN Stores, et al doing damage here too). Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. Author howerl. Filed under Uncategorized. Read More ».

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ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 29, 2012

A lot of people in Silicon Valley are down on job-hoppers these days. But it turns out that all that job-hopping is an important part of what makes the Valley so special. That’s Silicon Valley over the past few years. Job Hopping Makes Silicon Valley Hum. That’s why we have Silicon Valley.

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ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 29, 2012

A lot of people in Silicon Valley are down on job-hoppers these days. But it turns out that all that job-hopping is an important part of what makes the Valley so special. That’s Silicon Valley over the past few years. Job Hopping Makes Silicon Valley Hum. That’s why we have Silicon Valley.

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Ben's Blog

APRIL 7, 2021

Before we talk about how this might work, it’s helpful to take a look back at a case study of what gave rise to Silicon Valley as an innovation cluster and the San Francisco Bay Area as a modern supercity. In the case of Silicon Valley, it was a combination of: Universities like Stanford. Federal government.

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Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

To honor the Alliance it had made with those former employees, Airbnb waived the usual vesting cliff so that they could exercise their stock options, and provided generous severance packages. One Silicon Valley saying that is not as appreciated as it should be is that many of the best companies are led by missionaries, not mercenaries.

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Scott Edward Walker

NOVEMBER 2, 2011

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 ). Put proper privacy policies in place and make sure you adhere to them (see post here ). None of this is rocket science.

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Business Plan Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Some well-known Silicon Valley angel groups are Band of Angels, Sandhill Angels, TIE angels and others. She recently published an ebook with insights about the impact of JOBS Act & Dodd Frank Act on startup funding, terms like angel, accredited investors, venture capitalists, stock options, Restricted Stock, RSUs.

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Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 27, 2015

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 ). Put proper privacy policies in place and make sure you adhere to them (see post here ). Note: none of this is rocket science.

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Early Growth Financial Services

AUGUST 30, 2013

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) August 29, 2013 Early Growth Financial Services (EGFS), a Silicon Valley-based accounting and finance support firm with 175+ active venture-backed companies, is now offering valuation services.

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The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley has long been the barometer for engineering and product talent, but that same caliber of skill that startups need is also available across Asia. Make the benefits of startups and stock options very clear.

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ReadWriteStart

JULY 14, 2011

These are people with whom you can share some type of value, but not tangible value like stock options or payment. It's ok if you're not in Silicon Valley but who is your emissary? The next, larger layer of the pyramid are advisors who offer a soft value exchange. Someone needs to be there.

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infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

One startup I joined was very proud that they had been ‘accepted’ as a client by a prestigious Silicon Valley law firm whose name rhymes with a type of pasta (they are lawyers after all, so I have to be careful here…). The final straw came when I asked the latest 25-year old a simple ‘yes / no’ question related to stock options.

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thebarefootvc

MAY 13, 2015

Through mobile access to information and creation, people far from Silicon Valley now can be active participants in the world economy. After investing in technology for over 20 years, I have never believed more strongly in the transformative power of connectivity.

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thebarefootvc

MAY 13, 2015

Through mobile access to information and creation, people far from Silicon Valley now can be active participants in the world economy. After investing in technology for over 20 years, I have never believed more strongly in the transformative power of connectivity.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

Look at some of the uber-successful icons of Silicon Valley / Technology: Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry/Sergey, Eric Schmidt, Andy Groves, John Doerr. And he has already vested 75% of his stock options at your company. Not job hoppers. Job hoppers are the first people to the door.

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The Next Web

JUNE 15, 2012

From Silicon Valley to Peoria, Illinois, cash-strapped startups look for inventive way to finance their business – often handing out equity to employees, consultants, vendors, and other service providers. Many young tech startups reserve 15%-20% for employee stock options. It’s a logical solution. Plan upfront.

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Campus Entrepreneurship

MARCH 16, 2011

I lived in San Francisco for four years and the little city had some tech startups, but its clear that the South Bay is the heart and soul of Silicon Valley. From Michael Arrington at TechCrunch : San Francisco, unlike most other cities in Silicon Valley, has a 1.5% payroll tax.

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www.drowningamerican.com

JUNE 22, 2012

Surly, Silicon Valley wasn’t in a bubble. I’m not FaceBook or Twitter and have a s**t-ton of potentially imminent IPO stock options to offer someone. You can read more about that here. It was a much different time then. Developers weren’t as in high of demand. I disagree. That’s not my argument.

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Agile VC

FEBRUARY 2, 2012

3) Employee Stock Purchases Are a Near-Term ATM - Facebook has issued a combination of stock options and more recently restricted stock units (RSUs) as compensation to employees. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC. Read More ».

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