HelgeSeetzen

9 ms·

31.
by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
The early equity distribution is really a measure of future contribution. Vesting (or decreasing reverse vesting) is about the only concept that should the past into account at this stage. Just watch for tax considerations when you award eq
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
A lot depends on the leadership style of an organisation, no so much its size or business. Diversity ultimately creates better organisations, but it's harder to manage every day (that's true for all diversity: gender, culture, language, ori
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
The attitude above is the easiest way to ensure that the environment stays all-male.
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
That's viable in theory but not in praxis. Unconscious decision making bias will creep into everything that you do. That's hard to filter, especially for all those non-binary decisions in between "firing or not" (e.g. promotions, assigning
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Your boss can be a respected friends, but not a loved buddy. In other words, you can have all the rational features of friendship but probably need to stay away from the emotional side (and definitely the romantic side). There are two reaso
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
The short answer is to read your employment, consultant or partnership contract (the "loose agreement"). If that's not clear then show it to a lawyer. General guidelines for the US are that "work for hire" is owned by the employer (whether
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Step 1: Review investment terms with lawyer. Step 2: Sign term sheet with investor but do NOT take the investment. Step 3: Incorporate, assign equity to founders (at near zero valuation), sign employment & founder agreements, assign any
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Going against the trend here, but I would suggest finishing the degree. Yes, some drop-outs are successful (and we love to focus on those - American Dream and all that nonsense). But stastically speaking you are much much better off with a
39.
by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Caveat: I am not a tax lawyer, nor accountant. Moreover, I am writing this from Canada so your local tax law might be different. It sounds like you have already created a non-zero valuation for your equity (a fair market value established b
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
The term "founder" has really no significance in an ongoing operation, other than the fact that it might make a few geeks happy and a few employees unhappy. Scaling your business usually requires that you bring in more people and inevitably
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Internships are about learning, so you need to convince your administrator that you will get a valuable learning experience. "Learning by doing" is a cliche that probably won't be enough for your administrator. Universities have a mindset t
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
We are a bit north of you (Montreal) but always looking for strong interns: http://bit.ly/eCb7FU I would echo the comments about www.youtern.com and www.internmatch.com though. We get about 1/3 of our intern applications from these websit
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
I held a colour 60Hz electrophoretic display a decade ago (first startup). Electrophoretic displays can go at very fast refresh rates if you just zap them hard enough (i.e. high voltage on the TFT). Without higher voltage they can still run
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
If the sitution is as described then the obvious answer is yes. People don't change, so attitude issues are hard to rectify once the settle (certainly not in the timescale of a young startup). That said, the big take-away shouldn't just be
45.
by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
I have been in your shoes: At the peak in 2007 I was a full time PhD student (Physics, CS & EE), full time startup founder/exec (35 staff, acquired in 2007) and new father (child born on acquisition day - no kidding). Without really str
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Why are you studying pharmacy if you love coding? It will be very hard to reconcile school, hobby and actual entrepreneurship when they are all in diverging areas (and "coding" has very little to do with entrepreneurship). My advise would b
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Peer coding, coding tests and anything else you can do to evaluate actual technical skills. At the "small team" level, most leaders still drive their teams simply by being better developers that the other guys. Interpersonal, leadership and
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by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Hi Henry My company offers internships in both the technical and business domain. We are a "hands-on" accelerator, meaning that we provide founders with cash ($100k-$1M usually), facilities & infrastructure, and staff (eng, dev, biz, ad
49.
by HelgeSeetzen 16y ago
Nice article, though I disagree with the "while in school" part. Not only is it possible to build a successful business while studying, it's often even an advantage to start in school. The key is to find alignment between your studies and y