VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 9, 2011

Know your industry’s standards and keep a controlled cap table. In the eleventh hour of the due diligence process, we discovered a one-page agreement between a company founder (before incorporation) and a consultant, promising the latter 5% of the company’s capital. Think of the shares in your company as your currency.

Technical Review 90

Technical Review Cap Table Due Diligence Non-Compete 90

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 2, 2014

The acquiring company wants 100% of the proceeds to go to founders whatever the cap table says because buyers care way more about incentivizing and locking in founders than they do about VC returns or legal provisions to protect VCs. Every circumstance is different.

Cap Table 346

Cap Table Cofounder Stock Acquisition 346

ithacaVC

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Also, during the process, we had to clean up the company’s cap table and make sure that we all agreed on who owned what on a pro forma pre-money basis. Without having a complete pre-money cap table, it is impossible to calculate a share price. And they were typically good answers.

Term Sheet 58

Term Sheet Cap Table Technical Review IP 58

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 18, 2024

Some of these folks are founders and CEOs, but not at high-growth tech startups. Helpful investors should use their sage advice and support of the founder to make them into better, data-driven decision makers to impact a company, instead of relying on their contractually held voting rights. Perhaps they inherited it.

.Net 88

.Net Cap Table Startup Technical Review 88

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

The other super power should be in service of the founders you back. Pick something that is matched against the stage and markets you partner is investing in and just become the go-to person for the founders. Maybe you are just excellent at sourcing new grad engineering hires from your old school. Or running data analysis projects.

Venture Capital 91

Venture Capital Cap Table Founder Cofounder 91

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

He and his co-founder were both PhD’s in applied math who believe they can make some serious inroads on next generation search. Then they had a five-year P&L statement, balance sheet, cash flow and cap table. asked the founder who had spent the time crafting the perfect plan. “On It’s dynamic. “So

Business Model 332

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 332

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

He had made some structural mistakes in NextMedium that meant the Cap Table and leadership team was a bit wacky. He reached out to younger founders and offered to help via his network at AT&T, Google, media agencies … you name it. Relationships. So what gives? Mark, why wouldn’t you fund him? I stayed close.

Partner 340

Partner Los Angeles South Africa Cap Table 340

techcrunch.com

APRIL 26, 2013

That way, startups only have one entity in the cap table, which simplifies documentation and structure. Co-founder Naval Ravikant explains that 18 pilot companies in the program, including Transcriptic, Double Robotics and Tred, received $6.7 Investors included Founders Fund, 500 Startups and Marc Cuban.

SEC 61

SEC Accredited Investor San Diego New York City 61

Altgate

JUNE 25, 2012

Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Founders and hires have always quit, after all, and their companies don’t always have a way to reclaim their equity.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

To learn more about this space, I suggest join an online community I co-founded, PEVCTech. . Tim Friedman, Founder, PE Stack , said, “If I could offer one piece of advice to today’s managers, it would be to take the time to understand the demands of the modern institutional LP. The 11 Steps of Investing in Private Companies.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

NZ Entrepreneur

DECEMBER 18, 2022

Wellington UniVentures’ latest deep-tech spin-out, Advemto, cofounders Professor Justin Hodgkiss (left) and Peter Lai. When the time comes to put together a cap table, Pierre explains it’s a discussion between the university, its commercialisation office, company founders and investors. “We

Cap Table 52

Cap Table Technical Cofounder Artificial Inteligence Marketing 52

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Decathlon Capital.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

We’re founders (Epinions), investors (Twitter), students (life), and advisors (billions). All our products Pitching Hacks , Cap Table , and Co-founder Interview. Everything you wanted to know about advisors, Part 2 [.] Our Book Check out the free samples. Our Spreadsheet Check out the video tour. Learn more.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Version One Ventures

DECEMBER 3, 2019

We loved the founders, but didn’t have much conviction around the scalability of a browser plug-in and the fact that this was a bridge round. Ryan and his co-founders proved us wrong big time and built one of the largest social media management companies. We met Sonder’s founder Francis Davidson many times between 2014 and 2016.

Portfolio 201

Portfolio Cap Table Early Stage Valuation 201

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

Andrew Krowne and I recently co-wrote an article in Tech Crunch , Why SAFE Notes Are Not Safe for Entrepreneurs. The most serious unintended consequence occurs from “note waterfalls”— converting multiple notes that have multiple valuation caps. Many entrepreneurs lose track of what they have been cooking up in the cap table.

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Covenant Cap Table 49

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 26, 2011

When we were last with our SayAhh cofounders, they had implemented an accounting system and Jane had contributed $50,000 for a 55/45% equity split. The investments by the founders created two transactions. Next week we will introduce the Cap Table, and show how it changes when adding a co-founder.

Balance Sheet 129

Balance Sheet Cofounder Cap Table Delaware 129

View from Seed

MAY 29, 2019

These funds would regularly share deal flow with one another and could share the work in supporting founders and helping to push the company forward. This post will try to describe why this is happening and what repercussions are for founders and investors. Is This is Good or Bad for Founders?

Syndicate 267

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Cap Table 267

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

She’s also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in both funders and founders. What I was interested in seeing was that a lot of these founders believe that they’re not just creating technology, they're creating change and culture. Let’s move to Floodgate now.

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 31, 2021

Fund people/ideas ahead of consensus — that is, find founders and markets that aren’t currently being chased by the mainstream and get to conviction ahead of the pack. If you can be more valuable than that, I’d love to bring you on to the cap table of the next seed round we lead. Lead/Co-Lead Checks of $750k+ for 8+% ownership.

Cap Table 141

Cap Table Cofounder Early Stage Portfolio 141

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

We make a point of keeping our records updated in the major data-trackers tracking the VC industry, e.g., CB Insights , Crunchbase , Dow Jones , Mattermark , Palico , Preqin , Pitchbook , and ThomsonReuters , since they are a source of data to LPs and to potential co-investors interested in us. . Pitchbot.vc 3) Originate investments.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

Some of the best later-stage investors walk founders through an institutionalized “reverse” pitch. How do you decide who you should have in your cap table? At Version One, we effectively act as a hotline: we strive to be the first investor that our founders call and often times, it is because we are the most responsive.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Neil Rimer is a Partner and co-founder of Index Ventures. Yet, surprisingly, we continue to come across founders who have made significant mistakes in their early capital raises that we suspect go against their own instincts and jeopardize the foundations of the businesses they are building.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

Altgate

AUGUST 25, 2012

Re-posted from post co-authored with Prof. —————– Dead equity — equity held by employees and founders no longer working at the company — is a large and growing problem. Founders and hires have always quit, after all, and their companies don’t always have a way to reclaim their equity.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

Feld Thoughts

JULY 15, 2014

The CEO and founder, Steve Olechowski , was co-founder / COO of FeedBurner, which Google acquired in 2007. 2) Keeping the number of entries on our cap table relatively small. We recently funded Blinkfire Analytics using our FG Angels Syndicate. 2) Ability to diversify their funds without a huge minimum ticket.

Syndicate 149

Syndicate Syndication Cap Table Due Diligence 149

David Teten

DECEMBER 12, 2017

In his white paper How Private Equity and Venture Capital Investors Are Eating Their Own Dogfood , PEVCTECH.com founder David Teten explored how private equity and venture capital investors are trying to automate more of their job. I’d expect a similar shift in venture over the next decade or two.”.

Early Stage 60

Early Stage Technical Review Software Review Venture Capital 60

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

I understand the appeal of having many VC firms on your cap table. You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. The Perils of Many. That’s a different story.

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

This is going to be BIG.

MAY 4, 2022

For most founders, fundraising is a struggle. Morality aside, I’d say given the inherent riskiness of startups, I’m not sure this would be a great addition to your cap table. What’s that investor going to be like in a board meeting when you as a female founder need their support or worse, actually their vote?

Cap Table 167

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 167

View from Seed

OCTOBER 11, 2022

At the seed stage and as companies scale, helping the founders I work with identify and reach their goals, personally and professionally, gives me energy and purpose. Together, we’ve co-invested and competed, commiserated and celebrated.

North America 156

North America San Francisco Cap Table Cofounder 156

Hunter Walker

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

One was the result of a cofounder breakup. When they’re at seed stage, we’re deferring to the founders’ decisions but also trying to help them understand the challenges associated with a hard pivot if their cap table isn’t supportive of the direction. As Jason wrote : .

Founder 105

Founder Cap Table Seed Stage Cofounder 105

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 8, 2023

Obvious caveats to my POV here, most specifically: exposure is limited to largely the US/SiliconValley ecosystem, driven by our own portfolio, my friends and co-investors, the funds I’m a LP in, and our institutional LP relationships. Whatever gets reported is just the tip of the iceberg.

Portfolio 116

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 116

NZ Entrepreneur

JULY 12, 2018

We often see single founders slogging it out on their own. Founders can be reluctant to give up equity and control of their idea to bring in a co-founder alongside them to share in the decision making, as well as the highs and lows. Do you really need a co-founder? In fact, the average start-up had 1.72

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Founder Vesting Cap Table 47

Hippoland

APRIL 10, 2016

Dear elizy : I started a company in school with two co-founders. Although there are no set numbers, your professor should be considered as an active advisor or a co-founder who has left rather than a full-time co-founder. Let’s call them Ada and Bob. Ok, so what would I suggest?

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Cap Table Equity Vesting 48

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 21, 2022

Welcome to ‘500 Founders’ where we ask startup founders and innovators from around New Zealand, What is one piece of advice you would give to people working on their first startup and why? Thomas Clyma – Cofounder. Tina Chou – Founder. ” Dean Brown – Founder. TheTestMart.

Founder 97

Founder Cap Table Cofounder New Zealand 97

BeyondVC

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

We each independently fell in love with enterprise software 20+ years ago as seed investors (cos like gotomeeting/Citrix, greenplum/EMC, livperson/IPO LPSN) and founders (workmarket, onforce/Adecco, spinback/buddymedia/salesf0rce) and are now benefiting from the ecosystems, knowledge and network that weve collectively developed.

Cap Table 78

Cap Table Cofounder Dividend Institutional Investors 78

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 3, 2020

The partner at the fund, the VC, gets to do the fun part—the meeting with founders, vetting deals, negotiating, helping, etc. Side Benefits Ideally, a small fund could get you the following, but you have to ask to make sure it’s available: Co-investing opportunities. So what’s the point? Access to the partner.

Portfolio 103

Portfolio Syndicate Syndication Deal Flow 103

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Founder Vesting [Jared Hecht/USV] – Jared joined USV earlier this year and it’ll be interesting to see how his writing changes as he adds ‘institutional VC’ to his founder and angel investor knowledge. Stretching things out to a six-year vest helps to prevent co-founder abandonment.

Founder Vesting 74

Founder Vesting Vesting Cap Table Founder 74

Haystack

OCTOBER 2, 2019

Before we dive into this, let me say (1) I know a lot of people personally who run these accelerators and consider them friends (and darn good people); and (2) I know there will be a bunch of founders who will say “Hey, well, I met some great investors this way, so it can work.” Ultimately, the buck stops with the founder.

Deal Flow 106

Deal Flow Cap Table Early Stage Institutional Investors 106