Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. So how does this work in practice? Entrepreneur : “Sure.

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Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Board Effect

MAY 10, 2019

Capitalization tables—”cap tables” for those who don’t have time for extra syllables—map the balance of power in a company. If org charts are about people power , cap tables are about money power. In reality, however, cap tables are often far more complex. What is a cap table?

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Liquidation Preference Dilution Liquidity Event 40

Ben's Blog

APRIL 1, 2011

Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared to keeping my mind in check. I remember when I first became CEO, an investor asked me to send him the “cap table.” —The Geto Boys, Mind Playing Tricks on Me.

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Management Cap Table Balance Sheet Bankruptcy 78

Version One Ventures

MAY 22, 2018

How do you decide who you should have in your cap table? But we plan to “formalize” our learnings and best practices on board meetings, metrics, building purposeful culture (including diversity and inclusion), compensation, coaches, hiring checklists for specific roles, list of best service providers and more.

Cap Table 60

Cap Table Cofounder Syndicate Syndication 60

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Communications with New Board & Investors Ensure all of your investors have all legal documentation of the round, including an electronic version of the final cap table. Figure out a Board of Directors meeting schedule & cadence acceptable to everyone joining in person.

Founder 156

Founder Cap Table Stock Options PR 156

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

An investor had few hard metrics other than the actual financials, and little technology to make the process scaleable. Over the past few decades, better metrics became available, and investors could take a more analytical, data-driven approach. ” Historically, investing was a manual, artisan process.

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Board Effect

MAY 13, 2019

Let’s not waste time listing everything startups could be doing to more effectively manage their cap tables. When it comes to cap table management in startup companies, it’s unrealistic to expect perfection. What does your cap table need to address at each stage of growth? Defining Cap Tables.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Management Liquidity Event Dilution 40

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

One of the most important decisions for a founder of an early stage company is deciding who should be on the cap table. That’s why it’s critical to understand a the fund’s underlying philosophy on seed: is it true ownership or just a seat at the table? .

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Cap Table Due Diligence Early Stage Portfolio 350

View from Seed

DECEMBER 11, 2019

However, as we’ve seen from recent salient stories , these can be ephemeral and don’t end up mattering in the end… they’re really just approximations based on the market for buying a piece of a company’s cap table, not buying the whole thing or making it public. VC performance signal-to-noise-ratio is low. Fund cycle.

Venture Capital 204

Venture Capital Cap Table Partner LP 204

OnlyOnce

DECEMBER 1, 2021

Another telltale sign that you might need a CFO is more tangible: Are you spending too much of your own time managing fundraising, debt, investors, and cap table questions and issues? These are all telltale signs that your financial situation may be under duress, and a full-time CFO can be a solution.

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Hiring Cap Table Finance Equity 117

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 12, 2011

Anytime the financial model indicates that SayAhh will run out of cash, determine how you will raise capital to ensure liquidity and be sure to properly account for the debt or equity transaction on the balance sheet and Cap Table. Tie each round of funding to a set of key milestones in the development of your product/business.

Balance Sheet 136

Balance Sheet Forecast Cap Table Early Stage 136

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 2, 2010

I’m sure you’ll start seeing some rounds that essentially should be B rounds according to what the current cap table looks like, except that there’s a Series A level of progress, and about a million bucks in product overspend that didn’t really lead to a business. Drive one key metric. Once you have that, keep your focus simple.

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Cap Table Seed Stage .Net Venture Capital 106

ithacaVC

APRIL 5, 2011

I am a huge fan of simple cap tables. A cap table is a written record (in Excel, for example) of who owns stock in your company. This suggestion was completely appropriate as doing a Series A round for only $XX,000 would gum up the company’s cap table (thereby violating the simple cap table rule).

Common Stock 45

Common Stock Stock Cap Table Preferred Stock 45

Hippoland

OCTOBER 18, 2018

So you are taking a gamble that with more cash, you can get to series B metrics. But unless you have found fast growth channels, your people and marketing dollars end up not being put to very efficient use, and you are actually no better off than if you had bootstrapped your company but you have given away more of your cap table.

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Bootstrapping Cap Table Salary .Net 90

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2020

People, not just metrics. And what I mean by that is, almost every metric, every graph, every number, is a person. Eric Ries : Metrics are people too. Brian Chesky : Metrics are people. And so suddenly, your master are your metrics. Your metrics are your master. He has a unique business philosophy.

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Silicon Valley Hosting Cofounder Employee 60

OnlyOnce

MAY 26, 2022

Do you spend a lot of your time dealing with finance-related issues like fundraising, debt, investors, or cap table questions? Are you on the hot seat during board meetings on finance-related questions, metrics, runway, cash burn, or other issues? Trust your gut.

Cap Table 62

Cap Table Forecast Finance Metrics 62

abovethecrowd.com

APRIL 20, 2016

Anything that hints of a down round brings questions about the success metrics that have already been “booked.” You can no longer simply look at the cap table and estimate your return. They are likely sitting on amazing paper-based gains that have already been recorded as a success by their own investors — the LPs.

IPO 40

IPO Term Sheet Silicon Valley Valuation 40

Hippoland

OCTOBER 18, 2018

So you are taking a gamble that with more cash, you can get to series B metrics. But unless you have found fast growth channels, your people and marketing dollars end up not being put to very efficient use, and you are actually no better off than if you had bootstrapped your company but you have given away more of your cap table.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Cap Table Salary .Net 48

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 4, 2017

Activities that miss their metrics, either on the low side or the high side should rise to the daily decision list. If you do eventually expose your company to those professionals, all your dumb shareholders will get crushed in the new cap table. No one gives a founder a menu of choices to make every day.

Cap Table 48

Cap Table Austin PR Founder 48

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 4, 2021

You can go read about it on Wikipedia and whatnot, but it's sort of a metric that economists use to look at the various countries of the world and measure how economically free those places are. But one of those pieces is how companies get formed, how they raise money, how they manage their cap table and how they eventually go public.

IPO 113

IPO Cofounder Technical Review Government 113

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

WeWork needed billions in a cap table crushing lifeline and Knotel went bankrupt as well. There’s a metric f**k ton of empty commercial real estate out there—yet landlords continue to try to squeeze existing tenants for every last dime.

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Cofounder Venture Capital Community PR 137