Venture Hacks

Ben Horowitz:
“Training is, quite simply, one of the highest-leverage activities a manger can perform. Consider for a moment the possibility of your putting on a series of four lectures for members of your department. Let’s count on three hours preparation for each hour of course time—twelve hours of work in total. Say that you have [...]

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Seed-stage investors don’t like top-heavy companies: CEO, COO, CXO, CYO, VP of X, Y, and Z. It’s almost an immediate pass. No sophisticated investor is impressed by titles in an early stage startup.
If you’re an early-stage consumer internet company, you don’t need fancy titles, you need founders and employees who get can either [...]

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Here is an employee offer letter from Yokum Taku at Wilson Sonsini, published in its entirety, in various formats:
Offer Letter: Microsoft Word PDF Google Docs
The offer letter is also included at the bottom of this post.
If you’re an employee, ask questions if your offer letter varies substantially from this one. Ask questions even if it [...]

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Offer letters are short and easy to read, as far as legal documents go. But they contain some seemingly scary terms that are (1) ubiquitous in Silicon Valley and (2) usually “no big deal”.
We’re not saying that no one has ever gotten into a conflict or lawsuit over these terms—just that it isn’t common. The [...]

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In part 1, we covered some questions you should ask about your offer. In this second part, we’ll cover some things you should ask about the company.
Table of Contents
The Offer (see Part 1)

Can you give me the offer in writing?
How does my compensation compare to my peers in the company?
What are my options worth?
What percentage [...]

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We’ve been answering this question a lot lately:
“I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal?”
This isn’t a comprehensive answer—just some questions we would ask if we had an offer.
If you don’t understand your offer, get a lawyer. But—right or wrong—most people don’t hire lawyers to review their offer letter.
Table [...]

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