Author: Ryan Roberts
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Accelerator Mentors over Money (and Office Space)
With the success of Y Combinator and TechStars, several accelerators have popped up everywhere. Some have done quite well. Here in Dallas,Tech Wildcatters had a strong class recently and is poised to be around for awhile. They key for each is good programming and good accelerator mentors. But this morning I read a Dallas Business Journal article…
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Dealing with a Startup Creeper
Advisors are great for startups. They can provide your startup with guidance on a wide range of topics and typically take a seat on your startup’s advisory board. But sometimes a person who gives your startup infrequent, casual advice will broadcast to the world that he or she is an advisor to your startup in…
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Convertible Note Term Sheets
Just like the preferred equity financing process, the convertible debt financing process can start with a term sheet, rather than a full set of financing documents. A convertible note term sheet is beneficial because it postpones a lawyer from cranking out a full set of docs until consensus is reached regarding the convertible debt offering’s…
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Keeping a Seed Financing Round Open
Startups don’t want to wait until every investor is ready before closing on a seed financing round. First, the roster of investors will not be identified and/or cutting checks on the same day. Second, what startup wants to wait on cash? Therefore, most seed financings allow for an initial close (i.e., that first investor check)…
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Update to Accredited Investor Definition
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and later SEC rulemaking changed how the accredited investor definition works in a few important ways. Two updates that commonly show up in startup fundraising paperwork are the exclusion of primary residence from the net worth test and the SEC’s 2020 expansion of additional accredited investor…
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Filing a Charter Is Not a Startup Incorporation
I’ve noticed a lot of recent articles promoting that a startup can “skip the lawyer” and incorporate via an online service. These sites typically list about 20 incorporation tasks they’ll do for your startup for around $250 plus the applicable state filing fees. Sounds like a great deal, but there is more to a proper…
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Angels Asking For Control
Occassionally, a startup will get a term sheet from an angel with a pre-money valuation less than the investment amount (i.e., the angel wants control of the startup). And “control” isn’t just defined as a majority of the shares of the company — if the angel asks for approval of all budgets & hires or…
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The Convertible Note Discount and Price Cap
If you follow this blog, you know that I think convertible debt is a good structure for a startup’s angel round. The main feature of the convertible note is that the debt investment made by the angel investor will typically later convert into equity. For this article, let’s assume this equity is the Series A…
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Series A Startup CEO Salary
A startup’s CEO’s $500,000 Salary Burns Startup Into Fire Sale. The Importance of Startup CEO Salary The startup community focuses most of the term sheet discussion on liquidation preferences and anti-dilution, but startup CEO salary is nonetheless an important issue. According to Peter Theil, Startup CEO salary is a predictor of a startup’s success: “The…
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The Contract ROI Trap
Several weeks back, 37signals asked “Employment Contracts: What are they good for?” on Signal vs. Noise. Basically, they questioned the value of their employment contracts since they have never had an employment dispute: “Why have we become so dependent on lawyers to control every relationship inside our companies? Why is “just in case” the default…