Startup Company Lawyer

MARCH 14, 2010

After the recent announcement of the Series Seed Financing documents by Marc Andreesen, Brad Feld points out that there are now four sets of “open source&# equity seed financing documents: TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley). Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR). under $500K).

Finance 70

Finance Software Review Term Sheet Liquidation Preference 70

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2012

This is a company that, according to the article, got term sheets from half of the VCs that expressed interest in the company. Did I mention it only took the founder a month? David's firm most recently participated in the $77 million second round financing of SoFi, a one year old startup focusing on student loans.

Venture Capital 130

Venture Capital Marketing Term Sheet Software Review 130

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 6, 2017

by Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld, co-authors of “ Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist “ So, you’ve got a brilliant idea and you’re ready to launch a company. One of the worst positions you can be in during a financing is to have investors interested, but be too far short of your goal.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Term Sheet Technical Review Due Diligence 100

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

(co-written with Jamie Finney, Founding Partner at Greater Colorado Venture Fund. From RBI, Flexible VCs borrow the ability to reap meaningful returns without demanding founders build for an exit. By tying payments to actual revenues, founders and investors remain aligned around the company’s real-time performance, good or bad.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Does the traditional VC financing model make sense for all companies? 2018 also had the fewest number of angel-led financing rounds since before 2010. John Borchers, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Decathlon Capital, claims to be the largest revenue-based financing investor in the US. Absolutely not.

Revenue 60

Revenue Term Sheet Founder Technical Review 60

reidhoffman.org

NOVEMBER 12, 2013

You may happen to emphasize the right points that pique an investor’s interest, but you shouldn’t leave your financing up to chance. Second, understand the broader financing climate. There will be one to three issues that are potentially problematic for your financing — address them head on. What will their concerns be?

Entrepreneur 111

Entrepreneur Viral Revenue Networking 111

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “ There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents. The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor / founder interests.

Founder Vesting 252

Founder Vesting Vesting Founder Term Sheet 252

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. Bigfoot Capital. Key elements: .

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

The reality today is that capital is more available than ever and entrepreneurs have become more sophisticated, so founders are looking for more than just cash from their venture backers. I’ve seen many founders not fully grasp how the venture capital business works and what incentives investors have.

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2011

If they say yes you get a term sheet and once this is signed it is usually 3-6 weeks until your legal docs get signed and you’re funded. It can be a good strategy to bring just the CEO because 1-on-1 rapport is easier to build but if you have equally strong co-founders bring them. Who should attend the meeting?

Non-disclosure Agreement 340

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Cofounder Term Sheet 340

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

A first order filter is whether the founders are aiming for a scalable startup. Staring at us in the board meeting were three term-sheets from brand name VC’s and an unexpected buy-out offer from Google. The question was: what did the founders want to do? One founder quit and joined Google.) Go For Broke.

Hockey Stick 303

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 303

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 14, 2010

I was recently speaking with some founders about their fund raising process. They had received a term sheet from a VC and were wondering whether to work with this firm. But what about once you have a term sheet? You’d be surprised how many ex-founders and ex-CEO’s you can find this way.

Term Sheet 298

Term Sheet Venture Capital Stealth Cofounder 298

View from Seed

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

For early stage VC ‘s, Syndication is the process of sharing investments with other potential co-investors. The classic scenario is when a VC has a signed term sheet to lead a round, but has left room open for another meaningful investor. When I started in venture, syndicating deals was fairly common.

Syndicate 207

Syndicate Syndication Term Sheet Cofounder 207

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. Like many first time founders, I ran over that landmine. In particular, Bill Sahlman’s Entrepreneurial Finance course was excellent.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Reid Hoffman

JULY 27, 2021

As I discussed last week in the Greymatter podcast with my friend and Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh , I believe that a knowledge of philosophy is actually a great asset for entrepreneurs. Like many first time founders, I ran over that landmine. In particular, Bill Sahlman’s Entrepreneurial Finance course was excellent.

Silicon Valley 69

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Balance Sheet Cofounder 69

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 8, 2010

But what about once you have a term sheet? They made great introductions, they helped you get financed, the put in more money themselves, they helped you strategically and they helped you with your exit. You’d be surprised how many ex-founders and ex-CEO’s you can find this way. Don’t let that be you.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Term Sheet Cofounder Partner 288

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 14, 2012

What I want to talk about today is one of the insider baseball discussions of our industry this past week: The odd fact of the $500 million financing round completed just before the company sold for a B. ” Getting a term sheet on the table is the second most sure way to get a potential acquirer to move faster.

Valuation 316

Valuation Balance Sheet Dilution Term Sheet 316

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

There were regular events where experts talked about: fund raising, term sheets, constructing a team, product development, establishing biz dev partners, M&A, dealing with the press, etc. He previously co-founded Charlie , a Los Angeles based media company and interactive agency. GumGum – Raises $11 million financing.

Los Angeles 287

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Incubator Startup 287

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

The Business Model Generation was co-created by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from 45 countries. It’s packed full of interviews from successful founders and ultimately, will give you that platform from which you can grow. The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance, or Grow Your Company with Your Customers’ Cash.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

Dan is the co-founder of Standard Treasury, a Y Combinator backed company. He is also co-founder and Managing Partner of Deciens Capital, an early stage investment fund. I hope you take this as a term of endearment. Fred Ehrsam , his co-founder, is also incredible. On Sushi and VC. Everything we do.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

I am reminded of this problem every time my firm does a financing where a note went before us but more specifically I was reminded by this great post by Brad Feld to talk about the pre-money vs. post-money conversion issue. So how DOES a VC think about financings at early stages? It’s very simple. Those are the big three.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

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

Feld Thoughts

AUGUST 4, 2016

We just led a $35 million financing at Formlabs. Last week we announced that we led a $22 million financing for Glowforge. This spring, Max and his cofounder Natan Linder reached out to me about having Foundry Group lead a financing. The post Formlabs $35 Million Financing appeared first on Feld Thoughts.

Finance 70

Finance Term Sheet Cofounder Boston 70

ReadWriteStart

MAY 8, 2012

Gina Mancuso , Founder and CEO of LoveThatFit. Like most first-time entrepreneurs, we were so excited by our first term sheet — and scared we wouldn’t get another — that we came very close to accepting it, even though the investors weren’t the best fit. Avichal Garg , Co-Founder and CEO of Spool.

Cofounder 140

Cofounder Startup San Francisco Silicon Valley 140

K9 Ventures

APRIL 14, 2020

My inclination was that “this is a team of scrappy founders, and I like how they think.”. Several months ago I was having a conversation with my friend and former co-worker @ HiHello, Leith Abdulla , about how I am frustrated with Slack and want a tool that removes the friction for communication with the remote team.

Cofounder 127

Cofounder Venture Capital Guerilla India 127

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 1, 2010

“The Series Seed Documents are a standardized set of documents that can be quickly and easily deployed for a seed investment: to help get a company financed properly, legally, quickly, and intelligently.&#. It also scales back the right of first refusal and jettisons the co-sale right. 4) Term Sheet.

Preferred Stock 79

Preferred Stock Term Sheet Redemption Registration Rights 79

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 19, 2013

Loss 1: Offered a Substantial Secondary Slot But Passed Since We Seek to Lead/Co-Lead. This opportunity looked juicy: two founders we knew previously, mission-driven, attacking a big market. We Let The Round Become Competitive: There were dynamics to the opportunity which suggest we could have led the financing if we moved earlier.

Cofounder 109

Cofounder Term Sheet Seed Stage Portfolio 109

The Startup Lawyer

AUGUST 22, 2011

Here’s a list of the top 5 deal terms that cause harm to startups at the seed financing stage and therefore should be avoided: 5. This is something you might see in a late stage private equity financing with a company that has a history of generating revenue. What a deal — for the investor. Personal Guaranty.

Angel Investor 99

Angel Investor Dividend Dilution Cofounder 99

Hunter Walker

APRIL 27, 2014

We brief our major investors quarterly and decided to model our LP meeting after what “big funds” do, albeit with a few Homebrew flourishes :) Logistically this meant an afternoon session with presentations/Q&A then a dinner with founders/advisors. We love our founders. 2) Product Market Fit & Our Roadmap.

LP 99

LP Cofounder Term Sheet Valuation 99

Austin Startup

MARCH 25, 2011

I posed this question to FamigoGames co-founder Q Beck. In the selection process, I get the chance to meet with founders with varying motivations. In today’s bubble-like environment, many think they are going to emerge from a summer program with a fist-full of term sheets. Some of them will.

Michigan 82

Michigan Term Sheet Angel Financing Austin 82

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. Most incubators take common stock and sit “side-by-side&# with the founders, but some may want some (weak) preferred stock and/or dilution protection. Conclusion.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Feld Thoughts

JULY 14, 2015

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 term sheet converts all the convertible debt into a post-money valuation of $100, essentially making the convertible debt worthless.

Recapitalization 70

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

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Later that evening you review the term sheet from Blue Shirt. 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.&# Do you mean the shares go to the founders? VC: How about 12%?

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. My blog linked to Brad Feld’s blog because I was so grateful for his series on term sheets and he was one of the biggest reasons that as a VC I felt compelled to blog. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019

For the bulk of my career, I have been representing startups and emerging-growth companies in seed financings, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other transactions. Based on the foregoing experience, I am providing three basic tips to founders in connection with doing deals. the money).

Founder 45

Founder Private Equity New York City Term Sheet 45

The Startup Lawyer

MARCH 1, 2010

“The Series Seed Documents are a standardized set of documents that can be quickly and easily deployed for a seed investment: to help get a company financed properly, legally, quickly, and intelligently.&#. It also scales back the right of first refusal and jettisons the co-sale right. 4) Term Sheet.

Preferred Stock 40

Preferred Stock Term Sheet Redemption Registration Rights 40

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

When I was an entrepreneur there was no public information about how term sheets worked or how investors thought. Why Financing in Falling Markets is So Damn Difficult. Many founders don’t understand why inside rounds are so difficult. All of these are false. And so it goes. Back to my non-VC example.

Valuation 150

Valuation Down Round Startup Later Stage 150