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The above is pretty good advice (except for DoorDash) and is what VCs are doing these days - piling on after a company is a runaway success. In other words, if
by captain_perl 8y ago
The above is pretty good advice (except for DoorDash) and is what VCs are doing these days - piling on after a company is a runaway success.
In other words, if it's a small startup, do it as a founder.
Otherwise, stick to BigCo and Unicorns.
- ericd 8y agoI'm not sure - as a common stockholder, I'd be very worried about the liquidation prefs on a lot of these high flying companies. If we see their valuations come back to earth even a relatively modest amount, common shares become worthless. Also, unlike a BigCo, it can be very hard to get any liquidity unless they're friendly to secondaries.
- naveen99 8y agoWhat’s ycombinator’s policy in their startups, is it friendly to secondaries ? aren’t the founders common stockholders ?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- toomuchtodo 8y agoI believe founders have preferred shares, and employees have common shares. Edit: Above can be disregarded, see below replies, I misremembered my options paperwork.
- mikenyc 8y agoThere are definitely exceptions, but the classic scenario is that the founders get common stock, not preferred.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ericd 8y agoSeconding this, I can't remember ever hearing of founders getting preferred, so their incentives are generally aligned with the other employees.
- ericd 8y agoI don't know the policy on secondaries. But yeah, founders are almost always common stockholders in my experience, and they certainly don't want a preference overhang. And to be clear wrt my original comment, I think DoorDash is an excellent business, and I have no reason to believe that the valuation isn't fully justified, I'm just speaking more generally about the funding environment of companies doing large rounds at high valuations, and if a macro trend pushes startup valuations in the other direction.