Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2022

Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Giving equity is realistic, but base it on contribution and role, with vesting after time and milestones. The founder’s title and role dilemma.

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Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 325

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

Being the leader doesn’t mean more equity, nor does it mean the leader will necessarily be CEO. The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

Risk capital takes equity (stock ownership) in your company instead of debt (loans) in exchange for cash. Founders can now access the largest pool of risk capital that ever existed –in the form of Private Equity (Angel Investors, family offices , Venture Capitalists (VC’s) and Hedge Funds.). The Bad News.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Private Equity 120

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Sales & Marketing | Wednesdays. SALES & MARKETING. Should You Share Equity with Consultants? To grow his cash-strapped start-up, Parker ended up sharing equity -- not only with employees, but also with consultants and vendors. But sharing equity can have pitfalls, too. The Goods: Your Business Toolbox | Thursdays.

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Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

You never got around to agreeing exact equity splits but you had many conversations about it. Forget to get around to setting up that Employee Stock Option Plan and want to be able to give the early guys their options at a low strike price? Consider it a sales & marketing expense for them.

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Southern California Silicon Valley IP Stock Options 318

The Next Web

OCTOBER 8, 2015

As a rule, entrepreneurs are very protective of their equity, and try to keep 100 percent ownership for themselves. employees, partners) are appropriately motivated to help you succeed. lucrative sales commission plan, profit share plan), and sometimes that comes in the form of equity or equity linked incentives (e.g.,

Equity 60

Equity Employee Warrant Stock Options 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2019

Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Giving equity is realistic, but base it on contribution and role, with vesting after time and milestones. The founder’s title and role dilemma.

Hockey Stick 243

Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event Startup 243

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

Called Tim Spicer (c-companies partner) and he told him matt, they only want one thing, more warrant coverage!!! Mark: 10% warrant coverage is like stock options. Icing is the warrant for banks – stock they can buy in future but don’t have to buy so they make their $$ later in the future. And he said ok got it.

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Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

I’m a mom, a full-time sales manager, and recruiter. Entrepreneurs need to find a way to get traction (sales) without funding. It’s because pitching is making a sale and all sales are made emotionally and followed up with logic. Wait, you didn’t want to be a sales person? Stock Option.

Angel Investor 159

Angel Investor Technical Review Software Review Accredited Investor 159

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2018

Your historical trading information including financials and a “customer file” which shows the history of your transactions so that investors can run “cohort” analyses Customer reference, personal references, key team members, compensation, cap table, stock option plan, etc. Some people find this elitist?—?I

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Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2014

Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Giving equity is realistic, but base it on contribution and role, with vesting after time and milestones. The Founder’s title and role dilemma.

Hockey Stick 268

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 268

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

I’ve heard the following so many times that it still makes me scratch my head, “if those guys are going to get rich off of our backs then we’re going to look like fools if we don’t have equity.&#. I’ve already made clear that I think raising equity from “strategic money&# is an oxymoron.

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Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2017

Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Giving equity is realistic, but base it on contribution and role, with vesting after time and milestones. The founder’s title and role dilemma.

Hockey Stick 144

Hockey Stick Cofounder Entrepreneur Liquidity Event 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Old co-workers or new friends with complementary skills usually make the best partners. You have very little money, and you don’t want to give away your equity. Giving equity is realistic, but base it on contribution and role, with vesting after time and milestones. The Founder’s title and role dilemma.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

In brief, a cap acts to place a limit on the conversion price of a convertible note such that investors are guaranteed a minimum number of shares for their bridge loans if the startup does a priced equity round at a high pre-money valuation – “high” meaning above the cap, which is often a heavily negotiated term. (The of MySpace, Inc.

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Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

The Next Web

MARCH 2, 2014

Should we finance with debt or equity? This is the ultimate question to consider when weighing funding options. For us, because we chose to finance with debt, we gave up almost no equity in the company, and therefore almost no dilution of stock options. Is this someone you really want to partner with?

Liquidity Event 139

Liquidity Event Equity Finance Stock Options 139

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Instead of hearing from your long lost third-cousin, you will be inundated with an avalanche of ‘congratulatory’ emails, calls and letters from people who want to relieve you of the burden of your hard-earned equity round. Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

In other cases, they may come from your channel partners or elsewhere. A strong advisor can walk you in the door to the same number of companies as 2–3 new sales hires. I think of this as an early test of the founding team’s sales ability. All of these are challenging sales tasks, and advisors are no different.

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Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 23, 2023

Here is the warning: The execution of equity allocations and of a good incentive program using equity is often mismanaged, damaging the corporate capitalization structure and even affecting the outcome of subsequent investment into the company. … Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun. Here are some rules.

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Equity Stock Options Vesting Early Stage 62

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 23, 2010

a loan) that is later converted to equity at the time of the next financing. If no financing happened then this “note&# may not be converted and thus would be senior to the equity of the company in the case of a bankruptcy or asset sale. It starts as a debt instrument (e.g.

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Startup Burn Rate Warrant Bankruptcy 290

Berkonomics

SEPTEMBER 28, 2017

For those negotiating equity allocations it covers some of the most complex issues to address in the process. Here’s an example: First, a brand-new enterprise is often formed from the efforts of several “partners”, each with an expertise valued by the others. Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun.

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Early Stage Equity Stock Options Vesting 102

Ben's Blog

APRIL 21, 2010

The board encourages you to bring in some “been there done that” executives who will provide the right financial, sales and marketing expertise to help you transition from a world-class product to a world-class business. So you aim high and bring in a super accomplished head of sales. Beware of equity being the primary motivation.

Stock Options 70

Stock Options Restful Hiring Sales 70

Berkonomics

MAY 12, 2010

First, a brand new enterprise is often formed from the efforts of several “partners”, each with an expertise valued by the others. Equity is divided between the founders and the business begun. First you must create a stock option plan using your attorney, which must be registered in many states as a security offering.

Early Stage 85

Early Stage Equity Stock Options Vesting 85

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

And I really believe I can do, on the sales part, so much more if I have additional people. Jason: That’s true in engineering; it’s true in sales; it’s true in marketing. After that, I did it for a private equity firm then we became a part of a larger corporation. Why not get a partner? Edwin: Yes.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

When my partner Marc wrote his post describing our firm , the most controversial component of our investment strategy was our preference for founding CEOs. In the 80s, the invention of the CD completely revitalized the industry and led to (literally) record-breaking sales. Their emotional commitment exceeds their equity stake.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Ifyour competitors offer employees stock options that might make themrich, while you make it clear you plan to stay private, yourcompetitors will get the best people. The fund managers, who are called"general partners," get about 2% of the fund annually as a managementfee, plus about 20% of the funds gains.

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Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

In Meebo’s case, for example, I was lucky enough to partner up with Elaine and Sandy. No looking for partnerships (who’s going to partner with you anyway?). Trust me, once you’ve launched and achieved traction, you’ll have your pick of mentors, VCs, partners and all the legal expenses you need. Partner up? No legal muck.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

Then instead of being a low-level sale, we now had high-level adoption to help drive adoption of our solutions. the press, current and potential consultants, potential employees (to be clear, all current employees are in the arena with you), current and potential clients, current and potential partners, current and potential investors, etc.

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Advisory Board Balance Sheet Stock Options Email 48