A typical rule of thumb would be that an established company sets aside around 15% of the outstanding shares at any point in time for employee options. Those get split up among employees based on their contributions. Depending how key these VPs are relative to other employees you have (remember ...
There shouldn't be any "magic" to this. It's stock standard: 1. Set the conversion cap 2. Give them follow on rights should you need another round (you never know) 3. No anti-dillution 4. No liquidation multiple, just preference 5. 7% interest rate That's as fair as fair can be. Don't reinvent...
Wow! Good for you! It looks like you are on the right track. I have been part of several startups and have launched and failed some myself as well and learned from the experience. I have also helped raised for startups. I won't necessarily speak to the financials, but your question got me thinki...
Raising money is a choice, if you can self funded until the concept is proven and you start getting traction, don't give up equity early on. In any round, you give up a piece of the pie, the longer you are able to self fund, the better the end result for you. You will be in strong position if y...
Why do you ask? Are you trying to understand if you need/should seek startup capital for your venture? Or are you trying to understand how companies are leveraging the cloud to dramatically reduce startup costs? If it's the second, you're right re the capital requirements are lower. It's easi...
Thanks for reaching out. Do you want to meet in person? I am in San Francisco/San Mateo location. Best, Sean
Typically yes. And the more traction you already have, the more historical info you have on sales, the farther into the future you should model. 3 years is typical if you have traction and knowledge on which to base your projections.
From my experience I would not advise you to go with Venture Capital when you're a start-up as in the end they will most likely end up screwing you. A much better source for funding would be angel investors or friends/family. The question of how much equity should I give away differs for every s...
I founded a VC fund and successfully backed over two dozen startup, seed and early stage ventures. There is a "new" type of security called a SAFE which allows you to raise money and to put off the valuation until the professionals come in on an A round. Failing that you can offer a simple propo...
If you can skip investors and run with your customers money - do this until you're ready for big round. What is good traction...? It depends on how you sell it to investors, how you pitch them, actually. It's not about real traction on this stage in 99% of the cases. But... if you really want to ...