Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

Level of responsibility and time allocated. Cofounders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder. Amount of venture funding provided.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. 8220; His three things (worth reading his whole post anyway) are set vision/strategy and communicate broadly, recruit/hire/retain top talent, and make sure there’s enough cash in the bank. It’s great advice.

Technology 191

Technology Product San Francisco CTO Hire 191

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. is frequently granted ownership significantly less than that of the founders. However, at the very early stage, they are taking as much risk with their future as the founders. Engineer #1?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each co-founder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

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. Marketing Intern. Office Space.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Sierra AI , founded by Bret Taylor (former co-CEO of Salesforce, CTO of Facebook and current chairman of OpenAI) is currently raising hundreds of millions of dollars at $4 billion valuation, just a year or so from launch after unlocking AI voice agents for companies. Virtual employees for hire. Google paid $2.6

Vertical 170

Vertical Generative AI B2C CTO Hire 170

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

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

When you're getting started, sweat equity is often a critical component of your negotiating leverage with co-founders, early stage employees and others who aren't paid market wages to help you grow your business. Sweat equity is just one component of early-stage valuation. Here are some tools for tackling the challenge.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 14, 2017

He is the founder and CEO of Stackify. He started Stackify to solve the biggest challenge he had as the CTO of VinSolutions, so Matt, thanks for joining me. I was that hired gun in some senses. As a founder of a company, a CEO of a company. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Matt Watson. Does that make sense?

Kansas City 62

Kansas City CTO Hire Las Vegas Software Developers 62

The Startup Toolkit

AUGUST 29, 2012

If the founding team is non-technical and you can’t figure out whether you are being screwed by your developers or whether your potential new CTO is amazing, a tech advisor can help by joining you in interviews and reviewing commits. You’ll need to keep hiring tech guys. Situations where advisors can add huge value.

Technical Review 38

Technical Review CTO Hire Cap Table Software Review 38

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

“Why do founders want to take the VCs’ money? Founders will continue to take the “growth at all options” path that leads to privacy & trust creep at places like Quora. After all, growth equals high valuations and loads of venture capital! Ryan Lissack is the CTO of Maker Studios. Growth, again.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. VCs like acquisitions as much as IPOs because the acquiring companies often can rationalize paying large multiples over the current valuation of the startup.

Acquisition 334

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 334

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

The law of large numbers (of customers) says you cant help but make at least some money - your valuation is determined by how well you monetize the tidal wave of growth. In this model, you take some fraction of the lifetime value of each customer and plow that back into paid acquisition through SEM, banner ads, PR, affiliates, etc.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 24, 2013

A fortnight ago, Boris interviewed Reed Hastings on his business lessons and experience, but now I’m shaking it up with a look at a 26-year-old founder who is disrupting the mobile and social networking spaces: Kik CEO and founder Ted Livingston. What’s the secret? We will pay you to work nights and weekends with us.”.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Mobile 167

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Team Configuration 500 Startups Guerilla Marketing Organizations Entrepreneurship Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Startups Startup Incubators and Seed Programs Seedcamp Y Combinator TechStars Lean Startups What is the perfect startup team? Lakshman Prasad • Nov 16, 2010.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

BeyondVC

APRIL 3, 2006

One of the discussion groups that I led with Simon Levene (heads up Corp Dev in Europe for Yahoo and Yair Goldfinger (founder and CTO of ICQ and Dotomi) was titled "Are Internet VCs Dead." While there have been a number of acquisitions in the past year, it is still a fraction of the number of companies started.

Technical Cofounder 60

Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO Hire Israel 60

BeyondVC

APRIL 3, 2006

One of the discussion groups that I led with Simon Levene (heads up Corp Dev in Europe for Yahoo and Yair Goldfinger (founder and CTO of ICQ and Dotomi) was titled "Are Internet VCs Dead." While there have been a number of acquisitions in the past year, it is still a fraction of the number of companies started.

Technical Cofounder 60

Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO Hire Israel 60