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

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

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

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 118

Portfolio Cap Table LP Valuation 118

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

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

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS How to pick a co-founder by Naval Ravikant on November 12th, 2009 Update : Also see our 40-minute interview on this topic. Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. One founder companies can work, against the odds (hello, Mark Zuckerberg).

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

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

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

Big strategic advisors are the folks that add credibility to your co. from a 10 year old co. I have seen what I call “predatory advisors” come in and really mess up a cap table by promising big intros and sales contracts only to disappear after the first 6-12 months. How many companies do you advise today?

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

Hunter Walker

AUGUST 26, 2022

I had gone to high school with the founders in the Seattle area, and we had recently reconnected. My boss, Jen Grant , was an incredible manager, and Aaron Levie, the co-founder and CEO, was a fantastic partner on all things communications. I tried to get hired at Better Place and failed. Enter Box. They gave me a shot.

IPO 123

IPO Cofounder Early Stage San Francisco 123

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 we’ve collectively developed.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Dividend Institutional Investors 60

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

A company raises $1m of seed money from angels in a convertible note with a $6m cap. Assuming equity is raised at or above that cap, the total dilution, before the new money, is 16.6% (equivalent to an equity financing of $1m at a $6m post money valuation. The company spends the $1m building and launching their first product.

Recapitalization 70

Recapitalization Pre-Money Valuation Post-Money Valuation Angel Investor 70

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Reading on, the term sheet states, “The $8 million pre-money valuation includes an option pool equal to 20% of the post-financing fully diluted capitalization.&# Update : Check out our $9 cap table which calculates the effect of the option pool shuffle on your effective valuation. Do you mean the shares go to the founders?

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

As a bootstrapped startup, the only accountability you have is to yourself and to your co-founder if you have one. Now as a bootstrapped business, you’re still giving away equity, but instead of for money, you’re giving it away for time, to your co-founders and others you may work with. Having great accountability.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

David Teten

AUGUST 21, 2019

Most founders who are raising capital look first to traditional equity VCs. Revenue-Based Investing (“RBI”) is a new form of VC financing, distinct from the preferred equity structure most VCs use. For more background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. But should they? Optionality.

Revenue 60

Revenue Liquidation Preference Equity Cofounder 60

OnlyOnce

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

On the heels of the announcement we made last month about our Series B financing , we are now announcing the launch of a new program called Bolster Prime and a new venture capital fund called Bolster Ventures. In our prior lives, the Bolster founders worked together to scale up a business called Return Path and also.

Silicon Valley 62

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cap Table Early Stage 62

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

Professor VC

AUGUST 14, 2012

I had a conversation recently with Alex Mittal, Co-founder and CEO of FundersClub (FC) and decided to revisit my blog post from last fall that was skeptical of crowdfunding for angel investments. FC is the latest Kickstarter type site to launch to give entrepreneurs the opportunity to raise financing from a large number of individuals.

Accredited Investor 42

Accredited Investor SEC Cap Table Angel Groups 42

abovethecrowd.com

JUNE 2, 2021

This “gain” ($34B last year alone) is a result of a direct wealth-transfer to these individuals FROM the previous owners of the company — founders, executives, employees, and venture investors. Is it disrespectful to imply that the founders, executives, VC-backers, and the boards of these companies are gullible or naive?

IPO 82

IPO Customer Matching Silicon Valley 82

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Or you can just “burn the boats at the shore&# and give the advisory shares to the investor with the agreement that he will invest a minimum amount in the financing. We’re founders (Epinions), investors (Twitter), students (life), and advisors (billions). All our products Pitching Hacks , Cap Table , and Co-founder Interview.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

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. I’m a straight white dude who grew up in NYC and worked in finance. Drug kingpin? I’m the on-paper poster child for “who can get VC dollars”.

Cap Table 166

Cap Table Cofounder Private Equity Finance 166

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

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

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

Just before the IPO, I had a far-reaching conversation with co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong as he approached this major milestone for the company he co-founded back in 2012. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase. It's one of those things that founders can do sometimes where other employees are afraid to do it.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

David Teten

MARCH 18, 2021

(co-written with Stephane Nasser , co-founder of OpenVC , an open-source initiative to collect and analyze all VC theses.). OpenVC is a new, open-source initiative to collect and analyze all publicly available VC theses, to help founders more efficiently find the right investors, and vice-versa. Technical founders .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Venture Capital Deal Flow 78