Startups A perspective of working in the Startup world for 8 yrs |
- A perspective of working in the Startup world for 8 yrs
- Need advice. Received email from previous employer offering CTO position | No salary | 10-15% equity
- Tech co-founder
- Starting a business in a saturated market/ against big corporations
- Share your story about bootstrapping a sustainable business?
- How to get funding for a startup in tech?
- How do you find the right name?
- Is there a market when users don't have a problem but there are many solutions out there to solve it?
- Anyone have experience with a private office in a coworking space?
- Are SAFE Notes Illegal?
- Lack of communication causing major issues
- How to build my startups management team?
- Qualities and Knowledge required in a CFO/Non-Technical Co-founder?
- How to switch role at a Startup from hands to leadership (strategy, vision)
| A perspective of working in the Startup world for 8 yrs Posted: 03 Aug 2020 12:34 AM PDT 8 yrs have passed since I quit my corporate job to start a career in the startup world. In these 8 yrs, I have founded 3 startups and worked in 3. Some of the time I have spent doing miscellaneous projects. But what a rewarding journey it has been. It's not that I have earned a lot of money or a lot of respect or recognition. I am still a pretty unknown and normal person. But the experience of all these years is something I cherish. The most important thing I have learned is that you have to solve problems and not get bogged down by them. The other is to stay positive in whatever situation you are in, things do improve. I have made a lot of friends at this time and experienced a lot of different challenges that aren't there in a 9-5 job. I have been bruised, hit hard, but appreciated also. Is there a discontent that I couldn't make it big and earn a name for myself? Would I have been happier if I had achieved "externally" a lot more? I don't know. But I don't feel unhappy at this time. I am not an expert in any field. More like a jack of all trades, but that is okay. I can learn more about each field as I go along. Also, I can hire specialists to do the job for me. In the end, I will say It's been a hell of a ride. A lot of my beliefs have been shattered, a lot of new beliefs have been formed. And I try to keep an open mind. Edit: Mods pls remove this if not relevant. [link] [comments]  |
| Need advice. Received email from previous employer offering CTO position | No salary | 10-15% equity Posted: 02 Aug 2020 10:05 PM PDT Background: ~4 years experience. Was member of core technical team of 2 startups that had successful exits. I have had few startup failures as well from which I have learnt a lot. Yesterday, I received an email (SEE BELOW) from my previous employer (run by 2 people as a LLP). My year long work contract with them ended ~6 months ago, yet I continued to work without any contract/agreement for additional 4 months. I was the first and only employee during this time and was paid below market salary for non-technical role (business development). With my connections, I brought in >50% of sales (> $100k) myself without which the company would had to shut down long time back. I was promised financial incentives based on volume of sales I brought in, but was denied of it when asked. They also shit on our clients after all payments were cleared which eventually lead to sour relations with my connections for no fault of my own. I faced verbal / mental abuse almost every month when I politely inquired about late salary / unusual pay cut / rebate for work related travelling, etc. More than 2 times I have been threatened by one of the co-founders to come to my home to beat me. One time they contacted my friends, family and extended family when I was out of reach on a Sunday (Mother-in-law passed away, so was caught up with that). My heart beats increase and fingers start to shiver whenever I receive a message or call from them. I feel forced to work for them. 5 months into my business development role, I introduced them about building a B2B SaaS product in existing domain. I agreed to build the product with them on the condition that: CTO position, Equity 25-30%, no salary, 3 year standard vesting with 1 year cliff. They agreed as well and were very happy about it. I began building the MVP in good faith and trust. But I never received any official agreement or contract with my engagement terms despite regularly asking for it. So officially I was developing the product in my existing business development role, not any tech-role which was verbally agreed upon. I continued to bring in sales alongside building the product. I showed them MVP updates every 2-3 days. They always pushed me to build the full product with core features ("inspired" from other large players in the market), but I was reluctant as I had not received any work agreement. Whenever I asked for the copy of revised agreement stating my terms, they would blow it away by saying I am not working hard enough and want to see whole product. I continued to work even 2 months ago, I just stopped doing any work for them as original contract (business development) had already ended 4 months ago and there is no more contract and no revised offer despite building a validated MVP just on good faith and trust. I began searching for other opportunities and didn't want to waste any more time. I stopped receiving their calls and messages as it gave me severe anxiety. Last night I received following email from them: Dear <my name>, You are hereby informed that the Co-founders of <company name> has decided to provide you the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and allow up to 10-15% of Equity on the right basis to the Product which (we includes) <Co-founder name 1>, <Co-founder name 2>, and <My Name> are developing held by the existing shareholders on the date of this offer as per the detailed terms and conditions as mentioned, in PTC hereunder: As a shareholder on the aforementioned date, we are pleased to inform you that you are entitled to abide by all details as mentioned in the enclosed application form. Kindly note this is a rough draft for our reference this is not exhaustive mail. PRINCIPAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS (These are some of the important points and more of which will be added in the legal document later.)
i. You can sell your shares only after 5 years from the date of agreement not before that. ii. You are cannot transfer your shares to competitors or any individual who has been in the travel domain or any similar business for more than 1 years' time span. iii. The right of disposal of your shares would be given to the company Co-founders first. The Co-founder if they use their right to refusal then by prior initiation and approval of Co-founders you can sell your shares to an investor.
I need advice on below: 1.) Any good reason to take the offer? 2.) I lost ~1 year of cliff period due to delay in the offer made. What vesting terms shall I seek ? 3.) I badly want to finish the product with full core functionalities and see it through. But if working for them severely affects my mental health, is it okay if I reject the offer? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2020 10:03 AM PDT Does finding a co-founder with tech background (essentially CTO) means they will expect a high base salary ? Since equity means nothing at the beginning. I feel that it is very difficult to find a tech co-founder who has been working for a few years already, and asking them to join a startup that pays them "start-up price with equity arragnements" In this case , the possibility for non tech founder to partner with a co-founder with tech background remains small, except those are well funded at the beginning, or that they partner up when they were still at college. What do you guys think ? have I misunderstood? Share your Ideas! [link] [comments]  |
| Starting a business in a saturated market/ against big corporations Posted: 02 Aug 2020 05:22 PM PDT Hey guys! The tittle pretty much says it all, just wanted to know what do you guys think about starting a business in a saturated market or just going against well established / giant corporations. Is it even worth it to try and make a space for yourself when there's already a big market for your product or service? If you think it's worth it, how would you do it? And what are the pros and cons of this? Looking forward to know your personal experience / opinion on this! [link] [comments]  |
| Share your story about bootstrapping a sustainable business? Posted: 02 Aug 2020 02:32 PM PDT Looking to bootstrap, and most interested in sustainable (as opposed to growth) businesses. Haven't found nearly the community or volume of stories as exist for startups. I've found the high-profile stories (e.g. Tableau, Github) about bootstrapping, but those seem more like the exceptions than the rule, and not much about less growth-oriented business models. [link] [comments]  |
| How to get funding for a startup in tech? Posted: 02 Aug 2020 05:42 PM PDT Hey guys, I'm sure this question comes up all the time, but how is one supposed to get funding or pay for Software Developers? Think Snapchat, Airbnb, etc. that all relied on a platform before making any revenue. Do they all just go to Silicon Valley and hope to get a VC onboard? Our startup is thankfully already profitable, and we could afford to pay for a team of Software Engineers, but any investments would definitely speed up the process. This is without considering the fact that it can be crazy expensive to develop a fancy algorithm, database and search engine (that are crucial to the expansion of our business) so any input on how to get funding is highly appreciated! Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| How do you find the right name? Posted: 02 Aug 2020 11:58 AM PDT I've had an idea and have been working on building the foundation for my startup for a while but I keep running into a dead end when trying to think of a company name. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to brainstorm or figure out the right name so that I can continue onto creating a website, social media, marketing etc.? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2020 04:38 PM PDT We're looking to create a new startup that makes software in the fitness space. We've done 20+ user interviews -- MOM Test-style, without asking hypothetical question, and inquiring about previous and current experiences/problems -- with people in the industry that would be the target customers. From our own experience, we've also had a few assumptions about the pain points in the space. However, during the interviews, all the assumed problems came out as nice-to-have at most. Even worse (?) no one seemed to have any big problems (other than wanting more money) that would be solvable with software. What's confusing us is that there are many other technology platforms that address our assumed problems but no one in our interviews had those problems, or use the competitors. At this point, we're not sure if we should continue interviewing (did we pick the wrong people to talk to? when do we stop?), look for something else, or simply go forward under the assumption that there's a market because there are companies (at all stages) in this field solving our assumed problems? Is it worth considering an MVP (probably a couple months of work) at this point? Any advice? [link] [comments]  |
| Anyone have experience with a private office in a coworking space? Posted: 02 Aug 2020 12:27 PM PDT My company is currently based out of my house. Though it's a very fun time and super chill with no commute, it's getting to the point where there's not enough space to make our next hire. We've either got to sign a lease in an office that's probably not gonna be big enough a year from now or do something temporary like a coworking space. I'm thinking we get a private office in a coworking space and sign a 6-month lease. Since we're in a post-COVID world, companies have a lot of leverage when negotiating coworking leases. So far I've seen mostly good things online or on reddit, but I want to know if anyone here has experience with offices like this. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 02 Aug 2020 03:40 PM PDT Does anyone know anything about SAFE Notes being illegal? I was pitching to three Texas angel investors this past week. The terms I'm offering are on a SAFE note. One of the investors starts asking me how I have the SAFE note accounted for in my balance sheet. I tell him as Long-Term Liabilities. He proceeds to shake his head. He starts to tell me, "Oh, no that's illegal." I'm wise enough to know where he is trying to go with this. It all comes down to the SAFE Note vs. the Convertible Note issue. He starts to try to prove to me his point by saying from his investor's perspective on the accounting side they don't know how to handle where to put the SAFE Note in their balance sheet. Is the SAFE Note a debt? Is it equity? Truthfully, I really don't care about how he handles his accounting on his side of the deal but being that I'm pitching for his money, I quietly hear him out. When he is done I tell him that the SAFE Note and Convertible Note are similar but the Convertible Note is interest-bearing with a maturity date while the SAFE Note is not. So, I agree that a SAFE Note is not what is considered as a traditional debt instrument but a promissory note for future equity. He was shaking his head the whole time I was giving my explanation. I then ask him a simple question, "Are you an investor, or are you a lender?" He talked over that question and never gave me an answer. I know that it is to the advantage of the founder to raise on a SAFE Note and it is to the advantage of the investor to raise on a Convertible Note. It provides the investor better protections on the Convertible Note that the SAFE Note doesn't provide them. For instance, if the Convertible Note reaches it's maturity date before reaching the conversion terms, then the investor has a lot of power and leverage over the startup. They can call the note to be due and if you don't have the full amount plus interest to pay back they can bankrupt the startup and there would be nothing you as a founder can do about it. If they want to continue working with you they can extend the maturity date but can leverage this opportunity for better terms to their advantage. The terms that I offered as a founder are to best protect my investment and interest. But this was the first time I have ever heard that SAFE Notes were illegal. It doesn't make any sense to me because we are using the same standard documents that Y Combinator has been using for their startups which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars on these SAFE Notes. These YC companies have moved on to raise Series A, B, C rounds of priced equity funding and been successfully acquired by larger companies with not a single issue on SAFE Notes being illegal. To tell me what they have been doing all this time is illegal is very hard for me to believe. I've even Googled "Are SAFE Notes illegal" and get no results back. Ultimately, I hear him out on why he believes it is illegal. Then when he is done just simply tell them if you are truly interested in investing in my startup then I believe we can all come to an agreement on the terms. Then we left it like that. [link] [comments]  |
| Lack of communication causing major issues Posted: 02 Aug 2020 11:46 AM PDT I'm part of a small startup. We have been operating for about 3 months now. We have developed our first product after a few months. I'm responsible for all tech-related matters and am one of the co-founders so I should be made aware of any important events such as changes in strategy. When the startup was in it's initial phase, communication was good. We had regular meetings with everyone, which ensured that all co-founders were on the same page. As the months progressed, it was clear that there were distinct sub-teams forming, such as the marketing team, which was good, but came at the expense of communication. The communication across co-founders was totally broken. There was no channel other than instant messaging, which was rarely used. As an example, we recently had our monthly expense breakdown coming up. All co-founders have to pay their fair share. When we got the expenses, it was clear that some decisions had been made without our knowledge (such as marketing purchases). Even though this did not fall under my speciality (which is tech), me and some other co-founders were not told about this expense when it was going to be made, or the business justification behind it. What happened here is that we were told about all expenses at the last moment, when we need to pay up. When I raised the point that we should be told earlier when the decision making is taking place, this was shot down, specifically by the CEO. Their reasoning was that since every sub-team is responsible for their own team, the co-founders should not need to be aware of matters that don't fall under our speciality, even though I am paying for these expenses. The lack of communication has meant that business decisions have been taking place without my knowledge, which affect the overall strategy and vision of the organisation overall. Whilst I understand that I shouldn't be the one taking business decisions for smaller things that doesn't fall under my speciality, I need to know that it is going on, not at the last moment when a consensus has been made. Large business decisions (which should involve my input, as an equal equity co-founder) were taken without my knowledge, approval, and it seemed that I was told these things at the last moment, when a consensus has been made, instead of when the decision making is in process. This issue around communication has been recurring for a while now. As the CTO, I was startled by the fact that they had made the decision to look into contractors for our product, which would significantly affect the plans I had and my work, without my knowledge or input. When raised about this, I was made out to be the enemy, and accused of being confrontational. This issue was not resolved then. We recently had a conversation where the CEO accused me of being rude towards him. He had a task for me to do, which he mentioned as 'essential' in the text message. I did not have the time to do this, so I delegated it and let him know. He took offence to this and accused me of being rude towards him, even though he did not tell me that this was a time-urgent task. He ended up lying about this (saying he mentioned that this was time-urgent) and then forced an apology out of me. Eventually, the CEO's resolution to this was that if I wanted more communication to take place, it would be down to me to set up meetings with all team members and then facilitate. The CEO fails to understand that whilst communication should come from my end, it should be reciprocal, and that all co-founders need to be aware of what is going on, regardless of whether it falls under our speciality or not. This is a major issue that is reducing team cohesion and making me feel, well, undervalued and out of the loop, despite being an equal equity co-founder. Every time I bring this issue up, they fail to respond to my concerns. Who is in the wrong and how do we proceed from here? I have raised this lack of communication multiple times, and whilst heard, nothing really was done about it. [link] [comments]  |
| How to build my startups management team? Posted: 02 Aug 2020 10:48 AM PDT So i had what I thought was a great idea. Had 3 days off of my day job and used every waking moment to create an elevator pitch, pitch deck, designed some ads and even designed the UI for an app that goes with it. All self taught by the way. I then used cruchbase to get hundreds of emails and sent a nicely crafted email and my pitch deck to all of them. Well the very next day I started getting replies that they were interested. Some said it didn't fit their model which is understandable but a good number of them wanted more information and to setup a virtual pitch. I did all of that in 4 days from idea to pitch. My issue now is I have no team. To start my idea would be a huge project that cost over 1M and investors want to see the team that came up with the concept and will bring it to life. My question is should I give some equity to hire a team until we are profitable? Or should I let investors know that a portion of their investment will go to hiring good team members? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Qualities and Knowledge required in a CFO/Non-Technical Co-founder? Posted: 02 Aug 2020 08:45 AM PDT Here's my situation: I am a technical founder. I am lucky enough to have a diverse group of friends and connections that I am considering for a co-founder. However, none seem to fit the perfect qualifications. I've accepted that it's unrealistic to find someone who ticks off every item of my 'perfect co-founder' list. But I am unsure which qualities I should uphold over others. Here are 3 types of types of people who reflect my situation each with a positive aspect and negative: Person A: Business School student, would put in alot of his freetime currently, but unsure if he would stay with the Startup if it doesn't gain momentum or once freetime goes away which it will once school starts again. Person B: Hardworking, Passionate, would constantly use his freetime to work on the project to the end of it, but no Business or Technical education, and 'freetime' is limited. Probably willing to learnBusiness skills/courses. Person C: Passionate, would use his freetime to work on the project till the end of it, has alot of freetime, but no Business or Technical education, not as hardworking. Probably willing to learn Business skills/courses. So for A, should I value formal Business education over no formal business education. Or do I go with either B or C who passionate and are willing to learn business skills. Between B and C do I chose availability over work ethic? Or do I go with none and keep looking? Also was wondering what specific useful skills a Business student might have that would be unlikely to find outside of a Business education? Edit: About person B, we both make music as a hobby, and work together a ton from that. He has delivered every time I have asked him to. [link] [comments]  |
| How to switch role at a Startup from hands to leadership (strategy, vision) Posted: 02 Aug 2020 03:09 AM PDT Hi, While ago was promoted to leadership position, if we can call it like this. Personally, find it somewhat hard to switch from hands on to strategy, vision role. There are always tasks, issues popping up that need my technical guidance, skills. Some are "ghosts from the past" , when I did something well, and now it comes back again with new, more work. I try to delegate as much as I can, but sometimes it is hard due to lack of skills, knowledge, experience, other work, maybe even motivation in my team. Is it even possible in a Startup (200 employees) to do only vision, strategy? Or we all have to be all hands on deck, doing things that needs to be done. How does agile methodology sees it? How should one work in the agile organization I that aspect? Strive for? I also worked in Corporation, there it seemed like it was very structured, also mindset was different. People would not challenge things that much, do their thing etc. It was clear who does what, management, leadership leads, manages, employees do the work, tasks. Thanks, [link] [comments]  |
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