View from Seed

APRIL 27, 2020

Founders do not have this luxury. Most founders are going through hell right now, and that is not going away any time soon. Others are just starting out, but the financial safety net they thought they had from a spouse’s job or highly appreciated stock options has disappeared. Wait and see. This is scary.

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Cofounder Software Review Portfolio Technical Review 194

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

Thus I was happily surprised when I found the classic book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. It just means that the cofounders trust one of their own and are willing to follow. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Thus I was happy to see a recent book, “ The Tech Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide ,” by Bernd Schoner, PhD, and cofounder of ThingMagic, which leans heavily on the people side of the equation. It just means that the cofounders trust one of their own and are willing to follow. The industry veteran. The financial suit.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

The Next Web

OCTOBER 25, 2013

Aside from needing to be conveniently located for your employees to get to (and potential clients to visit for meetings), Ori Goshen, co-founder and vice president of research and development at Tawkon , says staying close to good bars and restaurant options also give employees a sense of life outside the work space.

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San Francisco Design Product Startup 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. Well yeah, you could potentially find a cofounder. I first did it for the founder. Edwin: You get a cofounder onboard.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

The Next Web

AUGUST 12, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Christian Reber, CEO and co-founder of Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder. I think an issue many talented entrepreneurs and European founders (especially German founders) have is, they don’t think big enough. Find the right co-founders and advisors.

Cofounder 119

Cofounder CTO Hire Startup Europe 119

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 17, 2011

Schools can’t give stock options, but they can give praise and non-economic rewards to those who uncover a new idea that works. Michael Feuer cofounded OfficeMax in 1988 starting with one store and $20,000 of his own money, a partner, and a small group of investors. Know when it’s time to pull the plug.

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Cofounder Programming Leadership Ohio 222

The Next Web

MARCH 11, 2014

Ryan Hoover is the co-creator of Product Hunt and EIR at Tradecraft. Even its founders couldn’t quite describe it, let alone foresee what it would become. In Twitter’s case, no interview or experiment would have predicted its success; in fact, it may have even deterred the founders from building it in the first place.

Silicon Valley 151

Silicon Valley Cofounder Stock Options Mobile 151

Scott Edward Walker

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

different perspective as a lawyer (lots of phone calls from founders with problems). Zuckerberg” problem – IP is not assigned to the company by the founders and/or third-party developers (including in foreign countries). Vesting schedules must be established to protect the other co-founders (plus, VC’s will typically require them).

Software Review 111

Software Review Delaware Accredited Investor Due Diligence 111

Scott Edward Walker

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

i) Rule 506 preempts State law, which means all you have to do is file a Form D and pay a filing fee; and (ii) no disclosure requirement/PPM Possible to sell to “friends and family” (e.g., issues to address include: How have they treated their other portfolio companies? Are they good guys or jerks? Can they be counted-on and trusted?

Software Review 111

Software Review Delaware Accredited Investor Due Diligence 111

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

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

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Founder 325

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 7, 2015

I was in the middle of that with Interliant (I was a co-founder) – we bought 20+ companies, at one point has an almost $3 billion market cap (on $200 million of revenue – recognize the multiple), but went bankrupt in 2002. I’d argue the 0.5x But let’s go back a little further in time. Or the ASP rollup?

Stock Options 70

Stock Options Cofounder Revenue Hosting 70

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

10 Ways to Make Your Relationship With Your Co-Founder A Success – crowdspring.co/1sSi21Y. Startup Equity and Stock Options: What’s It Worth to You? Tony Robbins… The CEO Whisperer – crowdspring.co/1sSkuW5. A Counterintuitive System for Startup Compensation – crowdspring.co/1zRImmt. 1tpjVIz.

Social Media 99

Social Media Small Business Design Media 99

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The co-Founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

For starters let me use “CEO” as a proxy to include her “inner circle” which might mean co-founders or might just mean senior execs of the business. The Mind of the Founder. The mind of a founder is wired differently than most people. The startup CEO was not the original founder.

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Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

Stock Options Stock Options are weighted heavily to compensate the people who take the most risk, namely, the people who join Fog Creek when its just a wee tiny company and were all jammed into one tiny office and we cant afford to buy your kids braces and sometimes you have to change the Poland Spring yourself.

Software Review 48

Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 2, 2014

Many startups these days are started by young, technical or product founders who are in the idealistic phase of their lives and careers. I call it “ the Co-Founder mythology ” and it’s persistent in our startup mythology. It’s not that I don’t love idealism – I was young once, too! .”

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Startup Stock Options Cofounder Campaign 385

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup Founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-Founders to help you? The co-Founder relationship dilemma.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders quandaries in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

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. These situations are only compounded if you have 3 or more founders. I know that many people reading this will be in companies with 3+ founders and aren’t having any friction. They agreed to all be co-founders.

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Founder Cofounder Equity Stock Options 251

Up and Running

MARCH 7, 2018

As a founder, know that it’s O.K. Instead, focus on creating a company culture where it is safe for employees to ask questions and seek advice from not only you, but other co-workers. As a founder, reach out to your professional connections for advice on what has worked in the past for them as far as training.

Employee 91

Employee Startup Salary Hiring 91

YoungUpstarts

JULY 17, 2020

by Juan Pablo Segura, President and Co-Founder of Babyscripts. If possible, offering stock options in lieu of raises or to counteract pay cuts is another way to build security. In the rapidly changing climate of a pandemic world, corporations have had to radically rethink their strategies for survival.

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Startup Wisconsin Stock Options Dividend 287

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 22, 2010

It’s still important advice for startup founders and something that I’m passionate about. You’re a startup founder. You start fighting with your co-founder whom you thought you understood. And he has already vested 75% of his stock options at your company. I’m sure of that.

Hiring 392

Hiring Employee Vesting Silicon Valley 392

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 29, 2017

Tim O’Reilly, Founder at O’Reilly Media and promoter of open source and Web 2.0 Let’s have a look at what early stage founders can expect in terms of oxygen. If you’ve just exited or realised stock options from a Silicon Valley success story, moving out of state is worthwhile.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Texas 48

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. All our products Pitching Hacks , Cap Table , and Co-founder Interview.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

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

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

The Greenshoe is an over-allotment of stock options, up to 15% of the total offering at time of IPO. You can offer these options to virtually anyone, friends, family, people who helped your company. Since they’re options, acquirers only exercise if the stock goes up, and have no downside risk or capital outlay. #Web

Silicon Valley 25

Silicon Valley Hawaii Angel Investor IPO 25

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Before you even get the business off the ground, it’s important to ensure that you and the co-founders (if any) agree on everything. Every startup should have a written founder agreement, which should include the following points: The roles and responsibilities of each member. Stock Option documentation.

LLC 168

LLC Startup Stock Options Cofounder 168

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.

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Vesting Cofounder IP Stock Options 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Most entrepreneurs struggle with many startup founders dilemmas in building their business, and these key dilemmas are probably the biggest source of pain and failure for the entrepreneur lifestyle. Should you start a company solo or find co-founders to help you? The co-founder relationship dilemma.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

"I advise my clients that you offer stock only after youve searched your heart and soul and cant come up with a way to pay with anything else," says Thomas H. Chip Morse , cofounder and partner with Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton P.C., Durkin , managing partner with the Boston -based law firm Lucash, Gesmer & Updegrove LLP.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

What about company stock options? Making those large sums of money only happens if you join the next billion dollar startup (only a handful every few years) or if you are a founder. 1% of the company in stock options doesn’t mean anything unless you know what the valuation of the company is!

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Stock Options Startup Stock Salary 141

Gust

OCTOBER 11, 2012

While you will definitely need to be a corporate entity before you can accept funding from any investor (or issue stock options to any employees), the specific corporate status of the venture at this stage is much less important to investors than its functional status.

Delaware 122

Delaware Stock Options Cofounder Stock 122

Scalable Startup

OCTOBER 26, 2014

The Greenshoe is an over-allotment of stock options, up to 15% of the total offering at time of IPO. You can offer these options to virtually anyone, friends, family, people who helped your company. Since they’re options, acquirers only exercise if the stock goes up, and have no downside risk or capital outlay.

Silicon Valley 20

Silicon Valley Hawaii Angel Investor IPO 20

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

The final straw came when I asked the latest 25-year old a simple ‘yes / no’ question related to stock options. John is currently a partner at Rincon Venture Partners , a venture capital firm investing in early stage web-based businesses, and is a Co-Founder of RevUpNet , a performance-based online marketing agency.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40