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As you get older without an exit, you start to freak out a bit about your retirement. At least that was true for me. I'm 1000x better as an entrepreneur at age

As you get older without an exit, you start to freak out a bit about your retirement. At least that was true for me. I'm 1000x better as an entrepreneur at age 42 than I was at age 27. But I'm also 100x more worried about some basic financial things like whether I will be able to retire, maintaining a mortgage, keep up financially with my spouse's career and her changing life expectations. And what helped stabilize me was some advisor shares that hit or I expect to hit, Beyond Meat (realized) and Calm (expected). So I would 100% trade my own equity for equity in another startup just because of the size of returns. A 0.1% equity stake in a startup that ends up hitting is life changing. And if you're about the entrepreneur life, then a hit on an advisor stake can set you up to never have any pressure to leave this life. One of the common patterns in my own circle of founder friends is how often they need to take a job in between companies. I've, so far, avoided that, and just moved on to swinging at the next thing.

csentropy 6y ago
I LOVE hearing stories like yours, and they inspire us everytime. You hit the nail on the head. The sad fact is that as an entrepreneur grows and matures, his risk tolerance goes down. Founderpool's mission is to maintain the entrepreneurial risk tolerance as you grow and acquire skills and connections, by reducing the opportunity cost over time. We believe it can have a positive systemic impact on the startup ecosystem.
centimeter 6y ago
> keep up financially with my spouse's career and her changing life expectations This has been a big issue for multiple people in my social group. It's well known at this point that a relationship where a woman earns more is less stable - https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/business/breadwinner-wives-and-nervous-husbands.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/business/breadwinner-wive... Whether this is due to sexist expectations, increased likelihood of hypergamous relationships in women, etc., is not very relevant; this is not good for men with high-variance occupations.
- tonystubblebine 6y ago
  This sounds like sort of an academic take on the pattern of the woman earning more in a hetero couple. My actual experience is just about feelings of equity. There's a person who I love and respect and she's done a lot to advance her own career over the 15 years we've been together. And so I want to be able to give her an equivalent amount to what she gives me.
  - GoodJokes 6y ago
    And you measure that by money?
m0zg 6y ago
> A 0.1% equity stake in a startup that ends up hitting is life changing. For the vast majority of startups, "hitting" is $100-200M acquihire. 0.1% of that is only 200K. If you can get in on something like Beyond Meat, sure, but that's the kind of a company which won't be a part of something like this. Speaking from the other end of this spectrum, BTW, my risk tolerance is higher now than it's ever been. I don't have to work at all, and my mortgage is paid off. But it's much more difficult now to convince me that some harebrained startup scheme will work. :-)
- tonystubblebine 6y ago
  Before Series B, I don't think people really know what's going to hit. And even then it's iffy. Beyond Meat was not a foregone conclusion when I got shares. And the way I got shares was actually through a pool that produced one acquihire, two zombies and this one IPO. We all shared an interest in each other (although different structure than this company). So, to go back in time, if instead of having half the company or whatever, I could have 47% and trade that 3% away for 0.1% stakes in 30 other companies (also knowing I had 30 people with an equity interest in my success), I would do that in a heart beat as long as those companies had been filtered at all.
- geoburke 6y ago
  Much of our research has been with founders at YC & 500 (cohorts who represent the Beyond Meats of the world). The majority we spoke to, including the breakout unicorns, stated they would have have participated in equity pooling with their batchmates during the batch. We also learned the darlings of their batch were often not the breakout successes, and later upstaged by others in the batch.
  - zhoujianfu 6y ago
    I actually had exactly this idea with my YC knock-off, HMC INQ. The first cohort (5 cos in 2017) I offered them to all pool some of their equity. But first I polled how much each would be willing to give. The results were 0%, 0%, 2%, 5%, and 20%. So, I abandoned it. Ironically the one that offered 20% is doing the best so far.
ttul 6y ago
LoL this is me, without the hit. Two decades in and no liquidity. But soooo much scar tissue.
- kirso 6y ago
  Welcome to the reality of survivorship bias... At least we are talking REAL life decisions, the interesting part is that its probably the majority of people, still no liquidity after years of work. On a bright side, its going to be fine but next time we will all think twice regarding the trade-offs.
  - ttul 6y ago
    On the other hand, I've had a really fun couple of decades and I have more freedom than anyone I know who isn't just rich. Yes, if you've had your exit, you obviously can just coast through life. But where's the fun in that?

csentropy 6y ago

I LOVE hearing stories like yours, and they inspire us everytime. You hit the nail on the head. The sad fact is that as an entrepreneur grows and matures, his risk tolerance goes down. Founderpool's mission is to maintain the entrepreneurial risk tolerance as you grow and acquire skills and connections, by reducing the opportunity cost over time. We believe it can have a positive systemic impact on the startup ecosystem.

centimeter 6y ago

> keep up financially with my spouse's career and her changing life expectations This has been a big issue for multiple people in my social group. It's well known at this point that a relationship where a woman earns more is less stable - https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/business/breadwinner-wives-and-nervous-husbands.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/business/breadwinner-wive... Whether this is due to sexist expectations, increased likelihood of hypergamous relationships in women, etc., is not very relevant; this is not good for men with high-variance occupations.

tonystubblebine 6y ago
This sounds like sort of an academic take on the pattern of the woman earning more in a hetero couple. My actual experience is just about feelings of equity. There's a person who I love and respect and she's done a lot to advance her own career over the 15 years we've been together. And so I want to be able to give her an equivalent amount to what she gives me.
- GoodJokes 6y ago
  And you measure that by money?

m0zg 6y ago

> A 0.1% equity stake in a startup that ends up hitting is life changing. For the vast majority of startups, "hitting" is $100-200M acquihire. 0.1% of that is only 200K. If you can get in on something like Beyond Meat, sure, but that's the kind of a company which won't be a part of something like this. Speaking from the other end of this spectrum, BTW, my risk tolerance is higher now than it's ever been. I don't have to work at all, and my mortgage is paid off. But it's much more difficult now to convince me that some harebrained startup scheme will work. :-)

tonystubblebine 6y ago
Before Series B, I don't think people really know what's going to hit. And even then it's iffy. Beyond Meat was not a foregone conclusion when I got shares. And the way I got shares was actually through a pool that produced one acquihire, two zombies and this one IPO. We all shared an interest in each other (although different structure than this company). So, to go back in time, if instead of having half the company or whatever, I could have 47% and trade that 3% away for 0.1% stakes in 30 other companies (also knowing I had 30 people with an equity interest in my success), I would do that in a heart beat as long as those companies had been filtered at all.
geoburke 6y ago
Much of our research has been with founders at YC & 500 (cohorts who represent the Beyond Meats of the world). The majority we spoke to, including the breakout unicorns, stated they would have have participated in equity pooling with their batchmates during the batch. We also learned the darlings of their batch were often not the breakout successes, and later upstaged by others in the batch.
- zhoujianfu 6y ago
  I actually had exactly this idea with my YC knock-off, HMC INQ. The first cohort (5 cos in 2017) I offered them to all pool some of their equity. But first I polled how much each would be willing to give. The results were 0%, 0%, 2%, 5%, and 20%. So, I abandoned it. Ironically the one that offered 20% is doing the best so far.

ttul 6y ago

LoL this is me, without the hit. Two decades in and no liquidity. But soooo much scar tissue.

kirso 6y ago
Welcome to the reality of survivorship bias... At least we are talking REAL life decisions, the interesting part is that its probably the majority of people, still no liquidity after years of work. On a bright side, its going to be fine but next time we will all think twice regarding the trade-offs.
- ttul 6y ago
  On the other hand, I've had a really fun couple of decades and I have more freedom than anyone I know who isn't just rich. Yes, if you've had your exit, you obviously can just coast through life. But where's the fun in that?