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Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad

Steve Blank

The mechanics of a stock option was a simple idea – you received an option (an offer) to buy a part of the company via common stock options (called ISOs or NSOs ) at a low price (the “strike price”.) Not everyone got the same amount of stock. The founders got most of the common stock.

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Why Uber is The Revenge of the Founders

Steve Blank

Traditionally, in exchange for giving the company money, investors would receive preferred stock, and founders and employees owned common stock. Preferred stock had specific provisions that gave investors control over when to sell the company or take it public, hiring and firing the founder etc.

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Valuation. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Gust

If you’re unsure about the difference between a pre-money valuation, a post-money valuation, a valuation cap, a 409a valuation, and the value of your common stock at any given time, you’re not alone!

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Why Philosophy and Entrepreneurship?

Feld Thoughts

We didn’t have any financing except for Brad’s credit card and the $10 with which we had purchased our common stock. We employed half a dozen programmers, most of whom were undergraduates from our fraternity working part-time. Dave walked into Brad’s office after calculating preliminary financial results for January.

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Dual Class Common Stock Structure for Founders

The Startup Lawyer

A startup founder’s desire to hold equity better than plain-vanilla common stock isn’t new. Several years ago, Series FF stock for founders was all the rage when it came to founder liquidity at subsequent financing rounds. We implemented Series FF for a handful of clients back then but we haven’t done so recently.

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Creative Common Stock

ithacaVC

One rule of simple cap tables is to issue “normal” stock to founders (common stock only) and investors (typically preferred stock, but sometimes common stock to early friends and family).

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Survive the Term Sheet Negotiation and Investor Due Diligence Part 1

Gust

When a corporation is established, its ownership is divided into pieces called shares of common stock. That’s what you as a founder will have, which is why it’s also known as founders’ stock. There is a different kind of stock that investors can choose to purchase, called preferred stock.