David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve talked with a number of software development shops who are eager to get into the business of cofounding companies, i.e., getting product revenue and equity instead of just consulting revenue. What are the terms of their relationship with the founder?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 6, 2019

Mike Arsenault and his two co-founders—all with technical backgrounds—built their MVP while working full time for other SaaS companies. “We An engineer by training, Founder and CEO Larry Gadea built the MVP of Envoy’s first product, Visitors, by himself using only free versions of software. “I spent $1k on their MVP.

Sweat Equity 50

Sweat Equity Software Review Vesting Cofounder 50

SoCal CTO

MAY 4, 2010

- A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , April 19, 2010 5 Tips On VC Alignment: Discuss The Exit Before You Enter - OnStartups , April 29, 2010 Founder Agreements – Vesting, Vesting and more Vesting - High Contrast , April 25, 2010 Web Sites and Books for Novice Programmers - Feld Thoughts , April 25, 2010 Adding a Co-Founder In 140 Characters (..)

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Vesting Venture Capital Startup 150

View from Seed

JANUARY 5, 2016

At the beginning, a startup team is typically just a couple of co-founders. What we suggest at this juncture is that founders get acclimated to the tactics of scaling beyond the founding team. What to Address During Genesis Team Building: How do we divide and conquer responsibilities as co-founders?

Founder 120

Founder Cofounder Startup Early Stage 120

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 11, 2021

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value. Founders ignore non-compete clauses from former employers.

Cost 363

Cost Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder 363

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

” From the hyperbolic Jason Calacanis weighing in that “The petty VC’s did everything to deride [Naval, the co-founder of AngelList]” as though the industry was collectively s g its pants that AngelList was going to put us out of business. founder fighting. founder fighting. Both are right.

Syndicate 356

Syndicate Syndication Cofounder Early Stage 356

Scott Edward Walker

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Question My co-founders and I are working on a cool new site, and we’ll be ready to launch in a few weeks. We have no money – so we’re going to do the legal ourselves. (And please don’t tell us to hire a lawyer.) Vesting Restrictions. The first deadly mistake relates to vesting restrictions.

Vesting 89

Vesting Software Review IP Intellectual Property 89

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

While he kept bringing the conversation back to their big valuation I tried to steer the conversation back to how they were going to deal with: training the influx of new hires – in both culture and job specific tasks. retaining their existing hires who were working for intern-like salaries with little equity. the company had.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

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. One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters.

Equity 44

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 44

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Founders. Should founders have anti-dilution rights?

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. I never hire job hoppers. You’re a startup founder. You have tough choices to make about whom you hire on your team. You start fighting with your co-founder whom you thought you understood.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

The Next Web

AUGUST 26, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. Today, in steps 10-12 I want to discuss with you raising your first round of money, hiring to develop and maintain your company culture, as well as defining your role in the management of your startup.

Management 120

Management Cofounder Startup Bootstrapping 120

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. One who attracted much attention is David Choe, the graffiti artist hired to paint the company’s first headquarters.

Equity 28

Equity Vesting Cap Table Technical Review 28

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. First, a caveat.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 10, 2015

I often speak about co-founder fighting and how this ends in lawsuits but this has become much more prevalent. I’d encourage you to watch this quick 3-minute video with some views on what I call “ The Co-Founder Mythology ” that is perpetuated in Silicon Valley. Lawsuits are on the rise.

Vesting 150

Vesting Cofounder IP Stock Options 150

The Startup Toolkit

JANUARY 10, 2017

The most common (and emotional) screwing you’ll get in a startup is via your cofounders. First, some examples: A buddy of mine had done the hard work of finding two excellent tech cofounders. It’s not just cofounders. But because they have equity, cofounder screwings are different. A solution at the end.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Review Vesting Ratchet 20

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference. That’s one model.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

In this post, I describe why we prefer to fund companies whose founder will run the company as its CEO. As we looked at the history of great technology companies, we discovered that founders ran an overwhelming majority of them for a very long time, including: Acer—Stan Shih. Siebel—Tom Siebel. Sony—Akio Morita. Sun—Scott McNeely.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

Hunter Walker

JANUARY 24, 2021

Startups Should Work To Make Their Employees Wealthy Not Just Their Founders And Investors. That low price was part of what enabled me to purchase my vested options when I left, a conundrum that exiting employees often face. And why we work with the founders we back to make sure there’s enough equity set aside to make great hires.

Silicon Valley 83

Silicon Valley Equity Vesting Cofounder 83

Andrew Payne

SEPTEMBER 9, 2017

If an early very experienced developer has 1%, and a less senior dev has 0.5%, those become two reference points for the next dev hire. But, how should founders divide things up in the very beginning , where none of these internal reference points exist? And, how can founders talk about percentages before any funding?

Equity 71

Equity Founder Vesting Dilution 71

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2013

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten Founder” problem. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value. Founders ignore non-compete clauses from former employers. Marty Zwilling.

Non-Compete 235

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Startup Cofounder 235

The Next Web

JUNE 21, 2015

I felt like I read about their experiment with vested interest – personally, I could not imagine how a company could run with no managers. Nah, usually in the beginning, things like PR are done by the co-founders or whoever else has time. And for that very reason, I wanted to see Buffer make it work.

PR 60

PR Startup Software Review Technical Review 60

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 10, 2012

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a Founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Trouble with the IRS over Founders stock value. Founders ignore non-compete clauses from former employers.

Non-Compete 249

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Cofounder Startup 249

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact Home About Contact The Metamorphosis Becoming an Entrepreneur, by Matt Mireles Startup Lessons for the Proto-Founder I started SpeakerText in October 2008 during the financial apocalypse. You need a Co-Founder, not an Engineering Bitch. We hired three guys from that batch and paid them in iPhones.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 2, 2011

Here are five of the most common examples: Failure to document a founder agreement at the beginning. This oversight can lead to the so-called “forgotten founder” problem. Early co-founders often drop out of the picture due to disagreements, and you forget about them, but they don’t forget about the verbal promises you made.

Non-Compete 246

Non-Compete Accredited Investor Entrepreneur Cofounder 246

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Back in 1997, Randy Parker was staring at a blank whiteboard, wondering where hed find the money to hire the employees and consultants he needed to build his new product. "We Chip Morse , cofounder and partner with Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton P.C., That way, he says, "Vesting is an encouragement for the project to be completed.".

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Eric Friedman

JUNE 27, 2016

This is the classic “hire people smarter than you” which is harder said than done. Total = 0.75% for 3 advisors that vest as you see fit to help you over the next 1–4 years (more on vesting below). Big strategic advisors are the folks that add credibility to your co. from a 10 year old co. Vesting Schedules.

Equity 98

Equity Vesting Cap Table Common Stock 98

thestartuplawyer.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. He obviously never launched a startup and got shafted by a co-founder. You can start by examining every aspect of the co-founder relationship. Don’t leave anything out just because you and your co-founders already talked about it.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Founder Preferred Stock Startup 40

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

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Advisor compensation Whether you’re hiring a normal advisor or super advisor: Advisory shares are usually issued as common stock options. The options typically vest monthly over 1-2 years with 100% single-trigger acceleration and no cliff. Does this stake need to have vesting schedule? Our Book Check out the free samples.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 18, 2009

Yesterday I wrote a blog post ( here ) in which I urged people to not have too many founders. What if the person performs OK, but not great and you need to hire above him? These situations are only compounded if you have 3 or more founders. They agreed to all be co-founders. Who prevails? That’s great.

Founder 251

Founder Cofounder Equity Stock Options 251

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

There were two distinct classes of employee equity (issued by Intermix and MySpace, respectively) with different valuation and vesting situations—and, most significantly, a $125 million valuation cap applied to the buyout of MySpace equity that was triggered by the acquisition of Intermix. Read on for a fuller explanation. by February 2006).

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Scott Edward Walker

OCTOBER 27, 2015

We charge a flat fee of $2,000, plus filing fees, for up to three co-founders and it includes unlimited phone calls and emails. Thus, founders never have to worry about picking-up the phone and asking their lawyers questions. Indeed, we have done more than 300 Startup Packages and the appeal is obvious: no billable hours.

Intellectual Property 40

Intellectual Property Accredited Investor Vesting Delaware 40

Spencer Fry

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

Much has been written about the disadvantages of being a solo founder. Paul Graham was certainly one of the first to write about it publicly in 2006 when he published his article, Startup Mistakes , with “Single Founder” as the first in a long list of mistakes. Bad co-founder fit. I wanted to start it on my own.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Founder Vesting Equity 28

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 3, 2009

Now he really thought I was nuts, replying "from the recruiter who hired me, of course!" If youre hiring creative, resourceful and smart people (and you are screening for that , right?) post) is very similar, I think the key is to hire smart people first, though. Are you hiring sysadmins? It was my turn to be dumbfounded.

Employee 146

Employee San Francisco Lean Software Review 146

The Next Web

DECEMBER 29, 2013

Startups will start hiring experienced storytellers who will help propel their brands to new heights through a combination of thought leadership, social media prowess and wordsmithing. Founders, executives and decision makers don’t have time to consistently create quality content and then properly distribute it. Expert Storytellers.

Social Media 164

Social Media Vesting Israel Distribution 164

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Type to Add and Search Questions; Search Topics and People Startups Startup Compensation Entrepreneurship Compensation Stock Options Major Internet Companies Silicon Valley Why is there such a large founder to early employee equity drop-off? The real question here is: why is it fair for founders to get so much more?

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40