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Most investors do, yes. But the investors aren't there to tell founders what to do at the initial incorporation phase, when vesting decisions initially get mad
by siegel 9y ago
Most investors do, yes. But the investors aren't there to tell founders what to do at the initial incorporation phase, when vesting decisions initially get made. Of course those decisions can be modified when investors come on board, but until that time the founders are typically working with the original vesting structure chosen by the founders.
- greglindahl 9y agoI'm sure there are some founders who make that mistake, this discussion being one example, but I didn't make that mistake, and the startups I've advised (all first-time founders) didn't make that mistake, you basically won't find any "guide to founding your first startup" on the Internet advocating that mistake. I have a hard time believing that it's common. I see from your profile that you're a startup attorney, so you probably have seen a LOT more deals than I have, but to a certain extent you probably remember the messed up ones more than the ones that used boilerplate documents.
- siegel 9y agoI've seen a lot of deals...and a lot of messed up deals. Multi-founder teams with no vesting does happen. I think that's a mistake and advise against it. Things go wrong way more often than people think. I differ from many folks in that I don't necessarily advocate standard investor-friendly structures (though structures that are easily made investor friendly, yes). But founder vesting is one place where I agree with the standard line - it's really necessary.