Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

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Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

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. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 3, 2010

There is a telltale sign of an inexperienced startup entrepreneur. As a startup you shouldn’t focus on buying other companies until you’ve figured out your own business. A close friend of mine in LA who is 3 years into his startup called me about 2.5 How much dilution should I take for it? million uniques.

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Merger Technical Review Early Stage Dilution 276

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2010

I never implied that startups are all great and job hoppers are all at fault. Most of what I learned about operating startups I learned from the really tough years at my first company from 2001-2003. That is when no customers wanted to work with Internet startups because we as an industry had burned so many customers.

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Venture Capital Hiring Software Review Stock Options 285

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 17, 2018

A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately.  —  @msuster 8/ Don't spend undue time advising other people's startups until your business is successful, scaling & stable.

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Founder Dilution Software Review Later Stage 242

View from Seed

JANUARY 13, 2021

What has happened is that over the last 10 years, the vast majority of successful startups have raised some sort of a seed round prior to a series A. And yes, a seed fund may have a tougher time holding on to their ownership down the road, and thus get diluted down. Both factors will hurt your ownership relative to fund size.

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Dilution Later Stage Portfolio Technical Review 399

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 26, 2023

Make sure new solutions offered actually build your brand, rather than dilute it. These disruptive technologies also have the potential for exposing your business to new competitors, including a wealth of startups that can jeopardize your core business, and redefine the marketplace. Solution may require new category development time.

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Product Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Dividend 354

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

That’s what a couple of my friends – engineers at Google and Bloomberg who have been following the rise of startup culture with intrigue – told me recently. Startup employees are granted common shares out of something called an option pool. Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted.

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Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

If you haven’t raised any money or if you raised a small round from angels or friends & family I would suggest you avoid setting up a formal board unless the people who would join your board are deeply experienced at sitting on startup boards. just having a sparring partner with a vested interest in your success can be useful.

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Venture Capital Startup Angel Investor Silicon Valley 236

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. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Secondly, they had an owned & operated (O&O) website – Google.com – and Overture had shut down GoTo.com at the request of their very profitable and large distribution partners. Too many entrepreneurs focus on dilution. That gave Google a huge cost advantage. Think YouTube vs. the rest.

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Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 18, 2009

The first came from the CEO of iScraper telling me that they would not be able to complete the deal – their investor, Apax Partners, had decided not to proceed despite verbal assurances that they would. I then flew from London to Los Angeles to meet with the partners of GRP. And then I got a few disturbing calls.

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Germany Entrepreneur Merger Los Angeles 298

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 14, 2022

And with the technology available these days, it is convenient to invest in emerging startups. Are you wondering how to invest in startups in India? The digital startup craze. The world is about to see a new generation propagating the Indian startup investing industry. Sectors witnessing a startup boom. Media tech.

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Technical Review Due Diligence India Startup 167

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 4, 2014

Yesterday I wrote a post about “ the politics of startups ” in which I asserted that all companies have politics, which in its purest sense is just about understanding human psychology. She started it with a partner, 50-50. Elie Seidman wrote in the comments section of my blog post on politics at startups.

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Founder Cofounder Sacramento Technical Review 340

Up and Running

JULY 2, 2014

Picking the right attorney in your startup is as important as picking the right business partner. My business partner and I made many mistakes in our first tech startup, and so many of them were the result of choosing a lawyer who was a terrible fit. My business partner and I were elated.

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Technical Review Angel Investor Due Diligence Dilution 118

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

George Deeb is the Managing Partner at Chicago-based Red Rocket Ventures , a startup consulting and financial advisory firm based in Chicago. There are a lot of variables to go into calculating a fair equity split a startup team. You can follow George on Twitter at @georgedeeb and @RedRocketVC.

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Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 12, 2014

People all across the value chain have taken notice including Limited Partners who are the people who invest in VC funds in the first place. This might happen because to meet all investors needs they end up selling too much of the company, taking too much dilution and feeling beat up. Why prorata rights are now sought out by LPs.

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Technical Review Later Stage Early Stage LP 336

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

especially if the startup already has a product and revenue? While the answers are somewhat semantic, the pre-seed funding round is making a comeback in 2024 startup financing. Pre-seed round tends to be the first ‘institutional’ round of funding in a startup. A founder asked me what makes a $2M round “pre-seed”?

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Valuation Software Review Generative AI Technical Review 186

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 25, 2010

“Yes&# was given to me by one of my favorite angel investor / seed VC’s to work with – John Greathouse of Rincon Venture Partners and author of the blog InfoChachkie that you should check out because it is filled with great info from a guy who has been a very successful operator. So what are you waiting for?

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Silicon Valley Technical Review Southern California Angel Investor 293

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly , a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The company is one of the largest VC–backed startups in Southeast Asia, having raised over $60M in funding. Sequoia , Accel , NEA , etc.).

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Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

View from Seed

APRIL 30, 2015

There’s been a lot of digital ink spilled around the various types of capital available to startups today. As a startup grows, venture debt becomes a viable option to continue that growth. Glen is an active contributor to the local tech ecosystem and well-versed in how and when startups can use venture debt to their advantage.

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Term Sheet Equity Startup Seed Stage 120

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. Are there principles that you live by that you’ve implemented in your startup that have worked really well? Should founders have anti-dilution rights? That’s where a good partner agreement comes into play. Marketing Intern. Office Space.

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Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2017

Executives run the day-to-day so often the board is more involved as a sparring partner at key intervals. ICOs certainly have a place in startup financing. In fact, as one Twitter commenter observed to what do board do, “Often, not much.” That’s true. The administrative work we actually do at board meetings?

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Cofounder Stock Options Equity Technical Review 217

David Teten

DECEMBER 2, 2019

You’ve decided to launch a technology-enabled startup with a positive social impact! Now the bad news: some venture capitallists have a bias against startups with an explicit positive social impact, on the grounds that they have a smaller addressable market, and that the founders are not sufficiently focused on creating shareholder wealth.

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Technical Review SBIR Dilution Silicon Valley 60

The Next Web

AUGUST 19, 2013

Sales are the bloodstream for most businesses, and tech startups are no exception. It’s always better to be earn money, not just raise it, as money you earn doesn’t dilute your ownership and reassures your investors. This post is about choosing the right sales strategy and channels for your startup from the start.

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Belarus Viral Channel Startup 137

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I have personally sold many copies of his book, and continue to recommend it as one of the most important books a startup founder can read. Brant and Patrick undertook a difficult challenge: to provide a generally accessible introduction to Customer Development, without diluting its impact or dumbing-down its principles.

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Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2019

The trends described above in VC performance have an upstream effect on Limited Partners which is somewhat counter-intuitive. So far in this post, I’ve honed in mostly on the top-quartile threshold, which masks the power-law that is exhibited in both startups and the VC industry. LP Constraints. So, how good is an outlier fund?

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YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

by John Vrionis, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Startups don’t raise all the money they are ever going to need to achieve the end goal in the Seed or Series A round. Raise too much capital at any given stage and suffer more dilution than is necessary – obviously not ideal. Think baby steps.

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Valuation Dilution Chicago Technical Review 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 5, 2015

They don’t understand that most great entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, had a partner with complementary skills on the business or technical side. In fact, I challenge anyone to name a famous inventor in recent times who also built a successful business without one or more partners on the business side.

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Entrepreneur Dilution Partner Distribution 120

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. As startup entrepreneurs we all want to work with them because having their name as reference clients makes it so much easier for marketing, PR, selling to other customers, fund raising and even recruiting. Large companies can be strange sometimes. Sometimes it actually does.

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Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 31, 2020

In my work with new startups, I often find people who believe that the terms “ entrepreneur ” and “ inventor ” are interchangeable. The simple solution I recommend to inventors is to find a partner who can focus on business and marketing, while you focus on technology. Two people with complementary skills are often equal to three.

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Founder Intellectual Property Dilution Startup 312

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

A fter years of talking with many of you in the Israeli startup industry, investors and entrepreneurs alike, I was invited to present some tips for entrepreneurs at the Launch48 conference in London this weekend. The talk was titled “Tips to make your startup attractive for investors&#. Sell your team, not your advisors.

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Elevator Pitch Incubator Technical Review Startup 102

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 4, 2020

They know from forums such as Shark Tank on TV that asking for either too much or too little will derail credibility in the eyes of the investor, and leave the entrepreneur with no money and a struggling startup. This is all about setting a credible current value on your startup -- not future value. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according the Crunchbase. The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down. Super angels have greater scope to match talent with a startup.

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Angel Investor Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup 314

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 9, 2022

As part of our Founder interview series , The Startup Magazine caught up with Salo Sterental, Co-Founder of the SoStereo, a marketing firm that enables brands and artists alike to unlock the marketing power of music. TSM: What characteristics does it take to lead a startup success to a scaleup success?

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Cofounder Founder Miami Marketing 158

Hunter Walker

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

And quite often, this spills out of the individual and becomes a negative for the startup as well.] Unlike a public stock which gets revalued every day, the intermittent nature of startup valuations means that it becomes all too easy for investors to develop a false sense of security about their portfolios. It’s a sales job!

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Venture Capital Silicon Valley Memphis Cap Table 89

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 1, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. I know this is unconventional thinking but if you want to understand more I cover my rationale on this post about The Most Common Early Stage Startup Mistakes and again in this post covering how to implement startup prenuptials. Take your inventory. Know thy weaknesses.

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