I recently wrote that it’s “fair for founders to own about 100% of a startup while employee #1 only owns a few percent.” My argument was that the dollar value of stock that founders get when they start the company is actually less than the dollar value of stock that employees get when they join [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Employees'
The first 1000x in valuation is the easiest
March 12th, 2011 · 12 Comments · Employees, Founders
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Are founders really 1000x more valuable than employees?
February 19th, 2011 · 30 Comments · Employees, Valuation
Is it fair for founders to own about 100% of a startup while employee #1 only owns a few percent? Are founders 10-1000x more valuable than employees? The answers are Yes, it is fair. Value doesn’t matter, timing does. In fact, many employees get better equity deals than the founders. There are two cases. 1. [...]
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Why startups should train their people
May 18th, 2010 · 4 Comments · Employees, Resources
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 [...]
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Top heavy startups
April 4th, 2010 · 14 Comments · Employees, Founders
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 build [...]
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What does an employee offer letter look like?
September 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Employees, Hiring, Legal Documents
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 [...]
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(Not so) Scary terms in offer letters
September 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Employees, Equity, Hiring, IP
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. [...]
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I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal? Part 2: The company
July 17th, 2008 · 12 Comments · Employees, Hiring
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 [...]
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I have a job offer at a startup, am I getting a good deal? Part 1: The offer
July 16th, 2008 · 21 Comments · Compensation, Employees, Equity, Hiring
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 [...]
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