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 'Founders'
The first 1000x in valuation is the easiest
March 12th, 2011 · 12 Comments · Employees, Founders
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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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When to fire your co-founders
January 28th, 2010 · 50 Comments · Founders, Hiring, Sponsor
Thanks to FastIgnite, a startup advisory firm, for sponsoring Venture Hacks this week. This post is by Simeon Simeonov, the firm’s founder and CEO (and formerly a partner at Polaris Ventures). If you like it, check out Sim’s blog and tweets @simeons. – Nivi The best strategy for not having to fire your co-founders is [...]
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Interview: How to pick a co-founder
November 30th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Founders, Interview, Podcast
We received a lot of good questions and feedback on How to pick a co-founder: Is two co-founders the only way to go? How do we split up the company? Who’s the boss? How do I know when to compromise on a co-founder? So Naval and I recorded a 40-minute interview to answer your questions, [...]
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How to pick a co-founder
November 12th, 2009 · 52 Comments · Founders
Update: Also see our 40-minute interview on this topic. Picking a co-founder is your most important decision. It’s more important than your product, market, and investors. The ideal founding team is two individuals, with a history of working together, of similar age and financial standing, with mutual respect. One is good at building products and [...]
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Updated: A quick and dirty guide to starting up
November 10th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Execution, Founders, Markets, Presentations, Starting Up
We’ve updated the presentation in A quick and dirty guide to starting up. The new presentation includes the notes that accompany each slide. I’ve also included the new presentation below. Watch it in full screen mode for maximum pleasure. The full screen button is at the bottom right of the embed and it looks like [...]
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A quick and dirty guide to starting up
October 24th, 2008 · 4 Comments · Execution, Founders, Markets, Presentations, Starting Up
Naval recently presented A Quick and Dirty Guide to Starting Up to Girls In Tech: (Slides: A Quick and Dirty Guide to Starting Up (pdf)) Here are some of my favorite quotes from the presentation: “We are faced with insurmountable opportunities.” – Pogo The most important thing: idea intelligence connections experience determination. Ideas, and therefore [...]
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Paul Graham: "Look in the mirror"
October 17th, 2008 · Comments Off · Downturn, Founders, Quotes
“If you want to improve your chances, you should think far more about who you can recruit as a cofounder than the state of the economy. And if you’re worried about threats to the survival of your company, don’t look for them in the news. Look in the mirror.” – Paul Graham
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Supersize your vesting with these microhacks
April 27th, 2007 · 6 Comments · CEO, Founders, Vesting
Our previous vesting hacks have discussed getting vested for time served, acceleration upon termination, and acceleration upon a sale. This article is a collection of four vesting microhacks you can use to supersize your vesting. 1. Reclaim a terminated co-founder’s unvested shares. A terminated co-founder’s unvested shares are typically cancelled. The resulting reverse dilution benefits [...]
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Accelerate your vesting upon termination
April 20th, 2007 · 17 Comments · CEO, Founders, Vesting
“During the whole funding process they said, ‘We’re interested in you guys because of your management team; we think you’re fantastic…’ Two weeks later they pull me into the office – before even the first board meeting – and say, ‘We want to replace you as CEO.’” – Mark Fletcher, Founders at Work Summary: You [...]
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