Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Quantitative metrics are either too easy to hit, or completely impossible. Figure out an equation for converting the bonus amount (in current cash terms) to stock option awards. Toss money in, and you put focus on the behavior, not on the motivation. This is totally messed up in a startup. Things are changing daily.

Stock Options 146

Stock Options Technical Review Leadership Equity 146

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

Use metrics to measure results of marketing initiatives. Great team members may take more time to find, and cost you stock options, but a qualified and highly motivated team that stretches your budget is a good calculated risk. Finding win-win deals is a manageable risk, versus a battle with one winner.

Startup 120

Startup Forecast Stock Options Technical Review 120

The Next Web

OCTOBER 25, 2013

Having a good balance between collaborative space and quiet space gives employee the option of being in a socially creative atmosphere or a peaceful area to crunch out the work. “We We have an open floor plan with glass conference rooms, and monitors throughout the office displaying company metrics and current projects,” Henderson says.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Design Product Startup 167

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 2, 2015

The full financial details and metrics were in the deck. So my time was freed up to call board members in advance and walk them through our metrics and understand any concerns. than to have to deal with healthcare benefit options, vacation policies, health-and-safety regulations and so forth. HR & Legal.

Operations 150

Operations Metrics Early Stage Non-Compete 150

The Next Web

MARCH 11, 2014

Their pitch was unpolished, product vision unclear, they had little understanding of their metrics, and traction didn’t stand out from competitors. WhatsApp, recently acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock options , challenged traditional Silicon Valley logic. Aileen passed on the deal.

Silicon Valley 151

Silicon Valley Cofounder Stock Options Mobile 151

Up and Running

DECEMBER 16, 2021

Metrics such as discretionary cash flow or business revenue are used. Some reasons why include needing a more detailed picture of your company’s value, submitting taxes, outlining employee stock option plans, or presenting to investors or creditors. Rules of thumb in business valuation. EBITA Multiple.

Valuation 86

Valuation .Net Metrics Balance Sheet 86

www.joelonsoftware.com

MARCH 24, 2010

Its impossible to use hard-and-fast metrics to decide where someone fits in, and these kinds of metrics tend to accidentally incentivize the wrong things. As the company grows, the initial package of stock options offered to new hires will be lower and lower. Once a year well grant people more stock options.

Software Review 48

Software Review Stock Options Salary Technical Review 48

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. Less than you’ll probably grant your most junior employees in stock options? Stock Option plans. So a convertible note was easier. Your A round?

Venture Capital 417

Venture Capital Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet 417

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

What I mean by that is startups nowadays that raise money have absolutely ludicrous metrics. So in other words, the bottom line is you’re not prepared right now in terms of the market, the product, the metrics anyway for VC, and it doesn’t sound like you’d be happy with VC. Does that make sense?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2013

Good press and industry mojo wasn’t enough to overcome the financial metrics of the business and the offers came in at more like $10 million. So the tech team departed en masse to find the next great stock option scheme to make their big bucks. It was not. I wasn’t surprised. We decided not to sell.

Startup 417

Startup Dilution San Diego Stock Options 417

Agile VC

JUNE 5, 2011

4) Unique Reporting of Accounting: Much has been made in the press that Groupon has chosen to report alternative non-GAAP metrics in addition to GAAP accounting. IMO this is much ado about nothing, as any comptentent analyst can look at Groupon’s GAAP and non-GAAP metrics and get a good sense of the business.

North America 100

North America Chicago Boston Silicon Valley 100

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 21, 2010

A “warrant&# is a right, but not an obligation for a company to buy stock in your company at a future date and at a pre-agreed price. Think of it as similar to an employee stock option. Make the warrants for common stock and not preferred stock. This is the same as with employee stock options.

Warrant 298

Warrant Dilution Startup Stock Options 298

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Deal with company admin: 409a valuations, approve stock options, vote on key measures (15%). Schedule 1:1 calls 1 week before the meeting to walk each board member through the key issues / performance metrics in the business. Provide information / context (15%). Ineffecient Board Meeting.

Advisory Board 337

Advisory Board Valuation Stock Options Seed Money 337

Ben's Blog

APRIL 28, 2010

Looking across these nearly 50 companies, the study finds that founding CEOs consistently beat the professional CEOs on a broad range of metrics ranging from capital efficiency (amount of funding raised), time to exit, exit valuations, and return on investment. Investments in innovation do not pay out in the current quarter.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 78

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Sarbanes Oxley has made it impossible to go public reducing financial capital for start-ups and the FASB rules on stock options have made it harder to attract human capital to start-ups. Why vanity metrics are dangerous ► November (1) ► October (7) ▼ September (9) Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (and a request for.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Genuine VC

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Proactively solicit input to create a board deck template and metrics dashboard to present at the first Board Meeting, so that you’re able to set a strong in-control tone. Foundation for New Employee Hires Formulate and socialize with the Board acceptable compensation bands (both salary and equity options) for new employees.

Founder 156

Founder Cap Table Stock Options PR 156

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.

Cap Table 336

Cap Table Due Diligence Forecast Churn Rate 336

Feld Thoughts

JULY 13, 2011

A lack of understanding how non-accounting metrics (e.g. You’ll be able to understand things like the implications of deferred revenue on cash flow, stock option expense on net income, and the actual equity dynamics of the balance sheet. An inability to read the Balance Sheet, P&L, and Cash Flow statements.

Balance Sheet 147

Balance Sheet Stock Options .Net Equity 147

Gust

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

There were no metrics. Him: On metrics. If we priced it based on any metrics your company would likely be worth less than 7 figures at your A round. Less than you’ll probably grant your most junior employees in stock options? Stock Option plans. So a convertible note was easier. Your A round?

Liquidation Preference 153

Liquidation Preference Valuation Term Sheet Stock 153

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 10, 2020

it took years for Airbnb’s metrics to really start accelerating. To honor the Alliance it had made with those former employees, Airbnb waived the usual vesting cliff so that they could exercise their stock options, and provided generous severance packages. Now here’s an interesting coda to that story.

Hosting 69

Hosting Hockey Stick IPO Silicon Valley 69

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 6, 2021

If your vision is powerful enough, you can make up for this by offering recruits stock options. Then, even if their salary is low, your employees would have the option of selling these options at a later date, if the company succeeds. New businesses often do not have the capital to attract top talent.

Limited Liability Company 167

Limited Liability Company Silicon Valley Business Model Stock Options 167

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

  For the sake of this discussion it’s the method rather than the specific metric that is important. [2]   For the sake of this discussion it’s the method rather than the specific metric that is important. [2]   [1] Various multiples are used for various reasons. 2]   (I don’t like EBITDA multiples very much.

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

Gust

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

This discussion expands on my Quora answer to a specific question: “ Why were the stock options of MySpace employees worthless even though the company was sold to News Corporation for hundreds of millions? ” The complete story includes a startup-within-a-startup, investments and exits by two VC firms, and some genuine corporate drama.

Valuation 98

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Merger Vesting 98

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Semi-annual reviews are excellent, especially for companies that offer stock options as well as merit increases for outstanding performance. With such reviews, option grants could be tied to one review and merit increases to the other. Two carrots in a year are better than one for obtaining desired outcomes.

Stock Options 61

Stock Options Metrics Employee Stock 61

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 24, 2012

If employees don’t feel like they have a stake it what happens, don’t have access to the financial data or can’t make decisions that impact the value of their ownership, then all the stock options in the world won’t help. The only metric that is not public is individual salaries.)

Salary 74

Salary Stock Options Equity Stock 74

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2019

What metrics will you use to fairly evaluate each direct report? Semi-annual reviews are excellent, especially for companies that offer stock options as well as merit increases for outstanding performance. With such reviews, option grants could be tied to one review and merit increases to the other. Our conclusion.

Warrant 48

Warrant Metrics Stock Options Employee 48

joel.is

DECEMBER 10, 2013

Within the Buffer team we have complete compensation transparency and every team member knows each others’ salary and equity stake through stock options. metrics@ - anything to do with company metrics. In fact, we share the bank balance and revenue numbers publicly. engineers@ - includes all our engineering team.

Email 55

Email Startup Stock Options Metrics 55

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Especially in early rounds — pre-seed and seed— when there are limited sales metrics and only early signs of product-market fit, these advisors help complete “the package” so to speak, providing a useful industry reference to investors and filling in the gaps in domain expertise that are common in disruptive tech-first founding teams.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

Board Effect

MAY 10, 2019

Cap tables list a company’s authorized and outstanding shares, the parties to which those shares have been assigned, and the various metrics relevant to managing them. Such metrics can include an investor’s liquidation preference, option exercise windows and expiry dates, and shareholders’ fully diluted ownership percentages.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Liquidation Preference Dilution Liquidity Event 40

Hunter Walker

MAY 1, 2016

I spend a lot of time creating plans and then finding concise ways to share them with the teams, get their buy-in, and then hold them accountable to the metrics we’ve identified. At a small company, particularly one where everyone has stock options, there’s no such thing as “not my job.”

New York City 48

New York City New York Los Angeles Startup 48

Hunter Walker

MAY 1, 2016

I spend a lot of time creating plans and then finding concise ways to share them with the teams, get their buy-in, and then hold them accountable to the metrics we’ve identified. At a small company, particularly one where everyone has stock options, there’s no such thing as “not my job.”

New York City 48

New York City New York Los Angeles Startup 48

Board Effect

MAY 13, 2019

This involves adding columns to list the dollar amount invested, quantity of shares, percentage of ownership, and other applicable metrics (on the x-axis) to accommodate new investors (listed on the y-axis). However, many businesses offer stock options as an incentive to attract executive talent.

Cap Table 40

Cap Table Management Liquidity Event Dilution 40

Cracking the Code

JUNE 24, 2021

But the Valley in 1999 was a new world of startups, venture capital, and stock options. We’ve been tracking employee morale, before and during the crisis, using NPS as a key company metric. The original plan was to finish my master’s degree, do a PhD at Berkeley, and become a scientist. We were very proactive though.

Global 62

Global Europe France Cofounder 62

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

Always testing and trying to run fast tests to put up some strong metrics before running out of money (did I mention we''re running out of money?). Financing: Do we have the metrics to support a growth or mezzanine round? Business Model: running a lot of experiments - pricing, packaging, value proposition. >$100 million.

Mezzanine 20

Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20