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| 11/23 |
| 2013/7/27-8/23 [Industry/Startup] UID:54715 Activity:nil |
7/27 We are really in a bubble:
http://steveblank.com/2011/03/18/new-rules-for-the-new-bubble
\_ "it’s the beginning of another bubble" according to this
Stanfurd guy. I like how he puts real profits in quotes, like
this:
And unlike the last bubble, this bubble’s first wave of IPO’s
will be companies showing “real” revenue, profits an\
d customers in massive numbers [..]
will be companies showing “real” revenue, profits and customers
in massive numbers [..]
I think as long as the IPOs have "real" profits, it isn't a bubble.
Yet. |
| 11/23 |
| 2013/4/23-5/18 [Industry/Startup] UID:54661 Activity:nil |
4/23 Suppose you used to work at Awesome Corp that got acquired by
Monsanto Corp. You're embarrassed about it and people now hate
you by association. Should you put Monsanto on your resume? Or
is it better to leave it out completely?
\_ Awesome Corp 2008-present (acquired by Monsanto in 2010)
\_ http://www.quora.com/Engineering-in-Silicon-Valley/Whats-the-best-way-to-hide-an-embarrassing-company-on-your-resume
\_ Monsanto is a great corporation, responsible for feeding
millions who would otherwise have gone hungry. Why wouldn't
you want such an awesome corp on your resume? |
| 2013/3/1-26 [Industry/Startup] UID:54615 Activity:nil |
3/1 Can someone explain to me why Groupon is a tech company?
\_ It's similar to how Amazon and eBay are tech companies.
\_ Amazon and eBay are *NOW* tech companies, they didn't
start that way. Groupon started off as a marketing
company, and their "technology" isn't getting any better
than a bigger and bigger opt-in email spam system. |
| 2013/2/14-3/26 [Industry/Startup] UID:54604 Activity:nil |
2/14 Media company reporter lies to get more viewers, gets caught:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/14/elon-musk-lays-out-his-evidence-that-new-york-times-tesla-model-s-test-drive-was-fake
\_ Did the Big Oil pay the reporter to do that? |
| 2013/1/16-2/17 [Industry/Startup, Finance/Investment] UID:54582 Activity:nil |
1/16 Fred Wilson says you should focus on the cash value of your
options, not the percentages:
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/11/employee-equity-how-much.html
\_ Or at least, so says a VC trying increase his profit margin...
\_ A VC wants to keep as much of the stock for themselves (and give
as little to employees as possible). That maximizes their return.
The VCs also control the valuation process. When he says your
option grant should be based on the valuation, do you think he's
saying that because he has the best interests of the rank and file
engineers at heart? His suggestion also means that your equity
and your salary will be proportional. One of the biggest
bargaining points in startup salary negotiations is trading off
salary versus options (I'm not saying one direction or the other
is a good idea, just that it's an example of reality conflicting
with this guy's suggestion)
\_ If "you" is a founder then yes:
"Giving out equity in terms of points is very expensive" |
| 2012/12/21-2013/1/24 [Industry/Startup, Finance/Investment] UID:54568 Activity:nil |
12/21 http://techcompanypay.com Yahooers in Sunnyvale don't seem to average 170K/year. \_ Googlers average $104k/yr? Uh huh. \_ what is it suppose to be? \_ link:preview.tinyurl.com/a36ejr4 Google Sr. Software Engineer in Sunnyvale averages $193k in total pay, according to Glassdoor. This is about right. Perhaps they mean all Googlers, including Janitors and Bus Drivers. Google Sr. Software Engineer in Sunnyvale averages $193k in total pay, according to Glassdoor. This is about right. Perhaps they mean all Googlers, including Janitors and Bus Drivers. \_ Gee, I'm a Principal SW Engineer at a startup and I'm making only $128k/yr. \_ Sounds like you're probably relatively young, then. A lot of this also depends on how much experience you. If you have two employees with identical job titles, the one with 15 years of experience is going to be making much more than the one with 7 (even when they start passing out senior-sounding titles to the younger engineers) \_ How much equity are you getting? That might be worth even more than your salary. I am very senior and working at a startup and making about the same. But also getting lots of equity. \_ When I joined 6 years ago, I got 0.25% ISO which has been diluted to 0.09% at present. Combining with the bonuses throughout the years, my total ISO now is 0.16%. -- PP, class of '93 \_ That's not a lot of equity. If you're class of '93, you should have enough experience to command a higher salary than that. .16 isn't a generous enough grant to make up for it. That's "junior engineer hired after round C" equity. The next time you switch jobs, ask for a hell of a lot more money (like another $30-40k). \_ Depends on the companies valuation. Any idea what it is worth? 0.16% of $100M isn't that great. 0.16% of $1B is awesome. -PP 0.16% of $1B is awesome. \_ The equity percentages you should expect are based on what stage you join the company, and how senior you are. The valuation matters when you cash in, but it doesn't really provide any guidance for evaluating an offer. And to your point, it's even *worse* if the company is worth a billion, because he got ripped off even more. \_ In what world is an option on $160k of stock worth more than an option on $1.6M? \_ What I'm saying is that the percent equity you should expect is independent of the company's valuation. If a more appropriate amount of equity would be about .5%, then his poor initial negotiation caused him to miss out on even more money if the company sells for one billion than if it sells for $100 million. I'm obviously not saying .16% of $100 million is more than .16% of $1 billion. \_ I think that you are incorrect. So does Fred Wilson up there, but then again he would think that, right? Do you have a handy dandy chart that tells people how much equity they should ask for given the funding round the company is at and the employees level? Absent that, most of this is just talk. \_ At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm being trolled. Or you deserve what you (don't) get. Want to find some guidance? Google it yourself. You might want to look at typical capitalization tables while you're at it. \_ In other words, you are talking out your ass and don't want to admit being caught at it. Cap tables have nothing to do with what rank and file (or even executive) employees should get in equity compensation. \_ Oookay, Mr. I Can't Google: http://thinkspace.com/how-to-divide-equity-to-startup-founders-advisors-and-employees Scroll down to the second table, that looks about right for round A. And your take on capitalization tables is just precious. \_ From your own link: "The one number you should know about your equity grant is the percent of the company you are being granted (in options, shares, whatever – it doesn’t matter – just the % matters)." Oddly enough, this guy doesn't seem to care much about the cap table either. \_ The cap table describes the larger ecosystem, of which your option grant is a small part. It is not necessary to evaluate an offer, neither is it unrelated. I directed your attention to *one table* on this page. I don't care about the rest of it. If he says "only the percent equity matters", that's a bit naive, as it ignores the preference the VCs have taken. It was true 15 years ago, but not now. \_ It was the same then but they accoplish- this via other, more nefarious means. At least this is up front. \_ What should it be for round B, round C, etc? Do you have any insight? This is actually quite useful, thanks. _/ I guess I did all right then, since I got this much in a company that has just completed it's D round -!PP \_ The game has changed. You might want to read up on preference in startup term sheets, and why it means that your (common) equity probably won't be worth much (if anything), even if someone does buy your startup. Example: in the $500 million purchase of Xen by Citrix, the VCs split 380 milllion of the purchase amount, while the rank and file were left splitting $120 million. So if you're sitting there thinking "I've got .5% equity"...you probably don't. And when the VCs preference (not their investment) covers more than the purchase <DEAD>price...com<DEAD>mon shareholders get nothing. Working for equity at a startup today is *not* like the 90s. \_ Yeah, I had to learn about this stuff before I accpeted the offer. I am ready to take the risk that I get nothing if the value of the company does not increase. It is in general a bad idea to get a job for a company that is failing, but especially bad if much of your compensation is in equity. I assume that I get 0.5% of the value added *after* I join. Does that seem about right to you? Thanks for the advice. \_ Preference describes the extent to which the preferred shareholders (the VCs) get paid more than the common shareholders (the employees who got options) if and when the place sells. It has nothing to do with whether the valuation is going up or down, though the preference is likely to increase (get worse for you) across a down round (a funding round where the valuation is lower than the previous round's valuation). However, if you have onerous preference conditions in round A, they'll still be there after round B, even if B is an up round. In fact, the VCs who come in in round B will get that same preference over you, most likely. The amount of equity you have is the size of your grant divided by the number of shares outstanding. You should be able to find out both those numbers to evaulate an offer. Run from any company that won't tell you the shares outstanding. The percent of equity you have at the time of your offer is *not* guaranteed across time, and *will* go down. Additional shares will get created during a funding round (dilution), which means you own less of the company. You should expect an additional grant at that time to compensate, but they're unlikely to give you enough to keep you whole. And even if they did, preference means you probably don't really have what you think you have. \_ Here is Fred Wilson's take on the topic. I think he does a better job of explaining it than you did. http://preview.tinyurl.com/alm43rs |
| 2012/8/29-11/7 [Industry/Startup, Finance/Investment] UID:54468 Activity:nil |
8/29 Private equity.
\_ vultures.
\_ company flippers -- rename logo, change management, hype, sell |
| 2012/5/23-7/20 [Industry/Startup] UID:54399 Activity:nil |
5/23 Does your company have an opening for a data-entry position? Hurry!
"Jersey Woman Says She Was Fired For Being Too Busty"
http://www.csua.org/u/wiy (gma.yahoo.com)
\_ why would you hire a dumb bimbo who can't do anything?
\_ Daily eye candy, or more.
\_ This is the kind of woman the phrase butter face was invented for. |
| 2012/4/29-6/4 [Industry/SiliconValley, Industry/Startup] UID:54374 Activity:nil |
4/29 My company is a public company and is talking to a private equity
firm. Is it ALWAYS a bad news when PEs are involved? -not Yahoo
\_ Pretty much. This was written for Yahoo! but could be for any
company being bought up by private equity:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/4yha2xp -still at Yahoo |
| 2011/12/9-2012/1/10 [Industry/Startup, Finance/Investment] UID:54254 Activity:nil |
12/9 A public company (NASDAQ/NYSE) needs to publicly disclose
important information right? Is there a way to find data that
shows who owns most of the stocks, when they're dumping (to measure
their confidence in the company), and how many people are shorting?
\_ It has been a few years since I took a business organizations
course, but from what I remember, there isn't a requirement for
companies to diclose who their major shareholders are b/c this
can and does change frequently. You might be able to figure out
when a major inside shareholder is dumping shares b/c they
generally have to give notice of intent to sell shares in advance
of the transaction. But, there isn't any similar requirement for
outside sharehodlers. Shorting is similar, but most companies
don't allow insiders to short the companies stock.
\_ Go to http://finance.yahoo.com. Enter your stock symbol, click "Get
Quote". Under "COMPANY", click "Profile". Under "Key Executives",
look at the pay and exercised options table. Then click "View
Insiders", and look at the "Insider Transactions Reported" table.
\_ Wow that is really cool THANKS! I'm looking at GOOG out of
curiosity: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GOOG
I find it funny that John Doerr exercises only 46 at a time.
This is not what I expect from multi-millionaires. LOL!
On the side, the page http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile
On the side, the page
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile
is wrong-- Neither Larry/Sergey are DOCTORS (they're just PhD
dropouts) and they exercised more than 0.00 shares.
\_ All this info comes from the 10-K and 10-Q that companies file. But
it takes a lot of reading to dig it all out.
\_ That table is what they exercised this year.
\_ All this info comes from the 10-K and 10-Q that companies file.
But it takes a lot of reading to dig it all out. |
| 2011/5/31-7/30 [Industry/Startup] UID:54123 Activity:nil |
5/31 Have you ever been in a company where there are many more talkers
than doers (people who actually... WRITE CODE!!!)? What do you
do in that situation? What if the management is more impressed
with talkers than doers? What is that like for you?
\_ http://ourlighterside.com/stuff/fiscal-crisis
\_ LOL thanks for the link. Yes this is exactly what
my company looks like. The CEO is friends with
everyone who is not coding (they talk a lot).
\_ yes, i have. just produce. the talkers will come to respect you
and in time will respect your critical perspectives in
response to their empty talk. but mainly just produce. |
| 2011/4/6-20 [Computer/SW/Mail, Computer/SW/Unix, Industry/Startup] UID:54078 Activity:nil |
4/6 My company is evaluating version control systems. Our two candidates
are Perforce and Subversion. Anyone worked with both and have good
arguments one way or the other? (These are the only two options we
have.) We're most interested in client performance, ease of use, and
reasonable branching.
\_ I'll be 'that guy'. If perforce and subversion are optins, why isn't
git? Having not used perforce, I can't say much about it, but svn is
grossly insufficient for my branching and checkpointing needs. I
cannot use svn anymore without git-svn.
\_ svn+trac = nice. git-svn+trac = OH THE HORROR.
\_ Corporate standards. (Yes, it's a stupid reason.) -op
\_ In what way is svn insufficient for your branching needs? All of
the claims I see about svn not supporting branching well predate
the merge support added in svn 1.5. I've not used svn and so am
not able to tell to what extent that merge support works.
\_ I have used P4win and the mods P4py and what not. I thought they
wre great at core focus, but lousy at being customizeable. You will
probably go with Perforce tho since the app looks nice on winboxen.
git for windows is knida amateur looking.
\_ There is also P4-Emacs at http://p4el.sourceforge.net which
I've used for a few years. -- yuen
\_ State your eng size. This will be one of the most decisive factors.
Perforce for 5 employees? FORGET IT.
Subversion for 1000 employees? FORGET IT.
\_ Try bugzilla on 1000 employees. Ugh. the horror.
I've used p4, svn, and git. All have advantages and disadvantages.
Use the wrong tool for the wrong size, you'll be bitching all the way.
What people don't realize is that there is something else much more
important than what you use-- a code-review process.
\_ We are a group of about 50 developers right now, with plans to
expand in the coming years and to manage more of our internal
tools through version control.
We do code reviews, although we're currently re-evaluating our
tool choices there as well. Our options are Crucible and Code
Collaborator. -op
\_ Go with SVN. You sound like small shop. |
| 2011/2/24-4/20 [Politics/Domestic/911, Industry/Startup] UID:54050 Activity:nil |
2/23 anyone following the HBGary/Palantir fiasco?
\_ ArsTechnica: http://csua.org/u/sms |
| 2010/8/9-19 [Industry/Startup] UID:53918 Activity:nil 66%like:53913 |
8/8 'What are the favorite questions people ask your company whenever
you say "Do you have any questions?"'
\_ 'What are the favorite questions people ask your company whenever
you say "Do you have any questions?"'
\_ What is the culture like here? How many hours a week do most
people put in? How many do you? What do you like best about
working at Company XYZ? What do you like least? |
| 2010/7/21-8/25 [Industry/Startup] UID:53892 Activity:nil |
7/21 Finally remembered to log into soda to post... CSUA'er in the news.
http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-harris/ci_15517047 |
| 2010/5/19-6/30 [Industry/Startup] UID:53840 Activity:nil |
5/19 I'm working for an early stage startup, and they want to grant me
stock options. However, they are claiming that I must either pay
tens of thousands of dollars to purchase the options at the
current valuation, or have it be taken as personal income when I
(eventually) try to cash out. It seems that both of these
are terrible choices. Are there any other ways to deal with
this sort of situation? I'd like the capital gains but feel
that I shouldn't be paying nearly half my after-tax income
just to purchase the stock that should be an incentive, not
a liability.
\ _ Your employers are retards. leave.
\_ It sounds like this is either your first experience with stock
options or your first experience at a startup. If this is an
early stage startup and the purchase price and valuation of an
option are equal, then exercising them is a very, very risky
thing to do. Most startups fail. You can realize no value for
your options until the shares can be sold (you're not publically
traded yet -- who are you going to sell your shares to and how
will you and the buyer determine the value?). The whole point of
an option is that you can, at a later date, buy shares for what
they were worth long ago when you started working there (assuming
the place succeeds). It sounds like you are years away from
needing to worry about this. You also need to learn about
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and how it relates to stock options.
If the place takes off and the options become worth something,
seek professional help for a good financial advisor.
seek professional help from a good financial advisor.
\_ Read this:
http://www.fairmark.com/execcomp/nqotime.htm
\_ This is excellent. I made about $20,000 on my options using the
"exercise and sell" option (or cashless sell) as in this article.
Note that you need to know whether they are NQO or ISO options to
properly follow this advice, because the tax ramifications are
different. For NQOs this article is right on the money.
\_ That article is moronic. Who the hell would exercise an
option to buy a share at $10, when the share price *IS*
$10? This was helpful to you?!? Next he is going to follow
it up with a brilliant and insightful article explaining how
if you have an option to buy a $10 stock at $11, it is a sub-
optimal strategy to exercise and sell.
\_ The "either ... or ..." that your employer said are usually both
true for late startups. For early startups, the current valuation
at the time of option granting is usually very low. When I joined
my early startup, I was granted 0.25% of the company in options, yet
I could exercise all of it for only $200. May be your company is
I could exercise all of it for only $200. Maybe your company is
not that early of a startup.
\_ Your company had a valuation of $80k when you started? That is
a very early stage start-up indeed.
\_ There were five engineers including me, and all reported to
the CEO.
\_ Just shut up and pay your taxes when they are due. Also, buy Piaw's
book.
\_ I just left my job of 2.5 years. I was granted a block at
a certain price when I started, and more ( at a higher price )
a year later. This is a startup that has not IPO'd, and
I think everyone involved would agree they will never IPO.
They might get bought one day. So I'm aware that options
traditionally vest over 4 years. I was not there for 4 years.
1 week after I left, I got an email from the CEO saying that
I could vest all of my options for a check for 17k. No mention
of current prices, estimated company valuation, number of
options already out there, nothing. From some numbers thrown
around at me from the old CFO who got fired 2 years ago, I
estimate I was given options for a little less than .10% of the
company. I think the CEO is just trying to get more money for
his company, but I really can't tell. |
| 11/23 |