crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Six Key Benchmarks for Your SaaS Startup – crowdspring.co/1d6kQCY. Model Equity Calculator for Founders with Option Pool Expansion – crowdspring.co/1fwUdsA.

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

The Next Web

JUNE 15, 2012

From Silicon Valley to Peoria, Illinois, cash-strapped startups look for inventive way to finance their business – often handing out equity to employees, consultants, vendors, and other service providers. Speed is often of the essence early on in the startup lifecycle, and that often means rushing into casual arrangements.

Equity 116

Equity Stock Options Vesting Stock 116

www.paulgraham.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Want to start a startup? August 2010 Two years ago I wrote about what I called " a huge, unexploitedopportunity in startup funding :" the growing disconnect betweenVCs, whose current business model requires them to invest largeamounts, and a large class of startups that need less than theyused to. Get funded by Y Combinator.

Startup 93

Startup Valuation Non-Compete Deal Flow 93

www.paulgraham.com

APRIL 28, 2010

Want to start a startup? A typical startup goes throughseveral rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take justenough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the nextgear. Few startups get it quite right. 1 ] A startups life will be more complicated, legally, if any of theinvestors arent accredited.

Technical Review 76

Technical Review Startup Software Review Angel Investor 76

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

While certainly not every business needs to raise venture financing, it is the path for many high-growth technology startups. As Steve Blank explained earlier this week on ReadWriteStart from research at The Startup Genome Project : One of the biggest surprises is that success isn't about size of team or funding.

Cap Table 125

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 125

venturehacks.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. FAQs What if the right guy already has his own startup? Breakups are hard If you’re going to fall out with your co-founder, do it early, recover the equity into the option pool to keep the company going, and recruit someone else great to fill the missing slot.

Cofounder 101

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Technical Review 101

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Precise valuations are impossible to determine because of adjustments to employee option pools, possible buybacks of common stock, etc. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. How To Think About The Future. Cliff Notes S-1: Kayak. April 17, 2011. Quinstreet priced at $15.00/sh

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. Percent of the outstanding option pool: meaningless. Strike price of options: meaningless. Are there principles that you live by that you’ve implemented in your startup that have worked really well? Marketing Intern. Office Space. Five years?

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

venturehacks.com

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. SUPPORTED BY Products Archives @venturehacks Books AngelList About RSS The Option Pool Shuffle by Nivi on April 10th, 2007 “Follow the money card!&# – The Inside Man, Three-Card Shuffle Summary: Don’t let your investors determine the size of the option pool for you.

Option Pool 68

Option Pool Pre-Money Valuation Dilution Warrant 68

Eric Friedman

DECEMBER 27, 2021

Startups pave the way for in person only monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually and large corps have 2 day a week in offices. Startups are more likely to pay mercenaries with expertise (like me!) No, but I did hear rumblings of this happening – alas it wasn’t meant to be in 2021. 9/ Hubs vs. Offices. cash + stock vs. FTEs.

Balance Sheet 97

Balance Sheet Stock Private Equity Option Pool 97

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. at a startup that has already raised $5 million the chances of you making your retirement money on that company is EXTREMELY small. So a friend recently called to ask for advice on becoming the CTO of a startup. If it doesn’t you’ll have done 3 startups by 26.

Stock Options 418

Stock Options Stock Liquidation Preference Option Pool 418

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Dealing almost exclusively with first time startup founders, we tackle the following question with nearly all of our CEOs: How much equity should they give to the employees? In one instance, I told a CEO that we typically recommend a 15 percent stock options pool at seed/Series A stage. She rolled her eyes in disbelief.

Equity 154

Equity Employee Option Pool Stock Options 154

Tim Keane

JANUARY 12, 2010

Startups and angels: Along the way to success.   Posted at 04:19 PM in Funding startups | Permalink. Funding startups. Startup ideas. Resources for startups. Startups and angels: Along the way to success. By Tim Keane, Angel Investor, Golden Angels Investors, LLC. TrackBack URL for this entry: [link].

Term Sheet 68

Term Sheet Valuation Dividend Liquidation Preference 68

View from Seed

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Editor’s note: Understanding how to divide founder equity at a startup can be tricky, even to the point of reaching emotional riffs between founders. Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits.

Equity 315

Equity Founder Sweat Equity Cofounder 315

Gust

SEPTEMBER 13, 2012

So, for example, taking a not-uncommon streamlined case of a company that had a seed round, a Series A and a Series B before being acquired (and for the purposes of this exercise disregarding any option pool), the math for a single-founder’s ownership of a startup would work like this based on giving up 20% each round: After Founding: 100%.

Option Pool 160

Option Pool Equity Valuation Startup 160

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits. As a result, one of the trickier things co-founders tackle is determining the equity split amongst the founding group of individuals.

Cofounder 255

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 255

Gust

NOVEMBER 8, 2012

The bottom line is that the very question you are asking is one of the trickiest things of all when it comes to startup founding. original post can be found on Quora @ : [link] *.

Founder 134

Founder Option Pool Vesting Cofounder 134

Pascal's View

JULY 9, 2017

There is nothing wrong with using a SAFE or a convertible note in a startup if you know its implications. The bottom line: Startup CEOs/Founders need to do the projected capitalization table math on an as-converted, post-money basis from Day 1, before issuing any notes and modeling various possible future scenarios. Sound simple?

Post-Money Valuation 49

Post-Money Valuation Valuation Cap Table Covenant 49

Gust

AUGUST 30, 2012

Integrity, Passion, Startup Experience, Domain Expertise, Functional Skills, Leadership, Commitment, Vision, Pragmatism, Flexibility, Personality. Characteristics of the Entrepreneur. Characteristics of the Venture.

Founder Vesting 144

Founder Vesting Option Pool Vesting Exit Strategy 144

Feld Thoughts

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

KG companies have decisive tax disadvantages for startups and are, therefore, rarely used in this area. Employee option pool: The framework conditions for employee option pools remain a major problem in Germany. BAND) and the Bundesverband Deutsche Startups e.V. German Startups Association).

Germany 167

Germany Liquidation Preference Option Pool Advisory Board 167

www.readwriteweb.com

DECEMBER 29, 2011

While certainly not every business needs to raise venture financing, it is the path for many high-growth technology startups. Earlier this week on ReadWriteStart, Steve Blank used research at The Startup Genome Project and explained: One of the biggest surprises is that success isn't about size of team or funding.

Cap Table 47

Cap Table Term Sheet Liquidation Preference Technical Review 47

The Next Web

OCTOBER 21, 2013

As the European startup ecosystem matures, you would expect young entrepreneurs to enjoy ever-increasing access to useful advice from mentors, business leaders, experienced entrepreneurs, legal advisors and investors. Neil Rimer is a Partner and co-founder of Index Ventures.

Cap Table 128

Cap Table Option Pool Angel Investor Entrepreneur 128

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Great news — your startup just got accepted to an incubator! But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. Pre-money valuations startups receive from incubators are typically low…really low.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. Changing Equity Structures for Early Startup Employees Tweet Recently someone asked me for advice on how much equity they should give to their early employees. the better the startup will be. 1% is just not a lot.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2015

Over the years I’ve written extensively about the downsides of convertible notes for startups such as here , here and here. How much is in the option pool? If you have 8 senior managers in place and I don’t think you’ll need as many people I might accept an option pool of 8% unallocated.

Pre-Money Valuation 150

Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Post-Money Valuation Dilution 150

Austin Startup

JANUARY 25, 2020

Austin, TX Fast forward 4 years later, here I am working for a startup at the South By South West Tech & Music festival in Austin, TX. SXSW brings a huge chunk of the music and tech world together in one city every year in March, and most startups launch their products there every year. How did I get the gig?

Delaware 62

Delaware SEC New York City New York 62

Genuine VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2011

This post doesn’t going into general tactical approaches of job offer negotiation, but rather focuses on the fact that with startups a significant part of compensation is related to equity or options. So optimizing a startup offer involves not just one key figure – salary – but also the option package.

Startup 121

Startup Equity Vesting Salary 121

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

See Bessemer Venture Partners’ A comprehensive guide to security for startups. Data companies focused on early-stage startups include Aingel , fundsUP , Preseries , PredictLeads , and Sploda. For more on gathering data and using it to assess companies, see How to Assess Startups Using Machine Learning. 2) Market . 8) Monitor .

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Advisor. ); STARTUP. If youre offering the consultant stock options, youll also want to take into consideration what the exercise price is going to be and how long the options will be outstanding. Create an options pool, if nothing more than in your mind, so you have some parameters to work within," Durkin says.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2010

After using Quora for a few months, I’ve found it a very helpful source of information on anything startup related: from technology, to strategy and even gossip, if that’s what you’re after. How much should it cost for a bootstrapped, lean startup to incorporate (or form an LLC)? Nothing else. Short answer: Patagonia.

Option Pool 88

Option Pool Analytics LLC Startup 88

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

Venture Hacks Good advice for startups. Many advisors want options they can exercise immediately —that’s fine. If your company hasn’t raised a Series A, increase the advisor’s equity by roughly 30%-50% to account for dilution from seed investors, Series A investors, option pools, swimming pools, and the like.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Agile VC

DECEMBER 4, 2014

Across both the startups I’ve personally been involved in (PayPal and LinkedIn) and the startups in which I’ve been an investor, I’ve seen a broad range of co-founder equity splits. As a result, one of the trickier things co-founders tackle is determining the equity split amongst the founding group of individuals.

Cofounder 173

Cofounder Equity Founder Sweat Equity 173

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

By definition each of those VCs (unless they are a micro VC – and one who doesn’t mind 5% ownership) will view you as a sort of “option&# where they might get to fund the next round if you do well. So why else would they invest if not as an option to re-up in the next round?

Dilution 314

Dilution Cap Table Due Diligence Option Pool 314

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

Since almost all startups do not possess traditional debt lenders, the list usually consists of data of the shareholders and the percentage they own. The range of investments in a startup can vary from three to seven figures. Later, when the startup develops and becomes profitable, the value of that stock can double or triple.

Cap Table 112

Cap Table Pre-Money Valuation Stock Options Option Pool 112

Hunter Walker

MAY 7, 2014

The entrepreneurs had some ties into the broader startup community so weren’t completely on an island but hadn’t sourced or vetted any candidates. That’s not healthy for a startup. Building a senior team but pushing back on having a healthy employee option pool? Sounds great. Won’t work out well.

Hiring 130

Hiring Option Pool Early Stage Term Sheet 130

The Startup Lawyer

JANUARY 10, 2011

Both sets of advice tend to ignore the gap between an investor’s expression of investment interest and your startup’s receipt of the term sheet. Term sheet purgatory can seem like is an eternity for a startup, although it may last from one week to over one month. And this has potential negative consequences for the startup.

Term Sheet 64

Term Sheet Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Option Pool 64

Eric Friedman

DECEMBER 30, 2020

This did not end up happening at all but there are a few startups working in this space which I think have a shot 2/ NFTs (non-fungible-tokens) will emerge as a killer use case inside an incredibly fun game at a scale. Startups pave the way for in person only monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually and large corps have 2 day a week in offices.

Stock 120

Stock Private Equity Option Pool LP 120