jalonso510

10 ms·

31.
by jalonso510 11y ago
It's debt but it's pretty clearly meant to convert into equity not be re-paid.
32.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Depends on the term of the merger agreement. But if the price was paid in stock and the exchange rate was fixed before today (which would be typical), then yes, they would have taken a big hit too.
33.
by jalonso510 11y ago
I'm not a tax expert, but I think dropbox would have to be a foreign company in order for them to purchase it with foreign cash and avoid tax problems.
34.
by jalonso510 11y ago
You're right that options are granted at the 409a price (the common stock price) instead of the price investors pay in the financing, but as companies become more mature, the common and preferred prices usually begin to converge somewh
35.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Another approach I saw a gym take recently was having a relatively high price but then you "earned" back a portion of the fee every month by meeting a certain activity goal. It seems like it might be complicated to administer, but
36.
by jalonso510 11y ago
In theory, owning a controlling stake in the company is worth something beyond the price of an individual share, because it gives you the power to affect the outcome of the business. The difference between acquisition price and current mark
37.
by jalonso510 11y ago
I work for talkdesk - would be happy to talk and try to address your concerns re: smoke/mirrors. Certainly not what we're trying to do. I'm at james dot alonso at talkdesk.com.
38.
by jalonso510 11y ago
I think parent is addressing the situation where the company is giving the employee the stock for free, trying to avoid there being an out-of-pocket cost for the employee. In that case, the value paid is 0 and the entire value of the stock
39.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Authorized shares is a pretty much irrelevant number. Companies typically have millions more shares of common stock authorized than they have actually issued to anyone. The relevant number is the number of shares actually issued and outst
40.
by jalonso510 11y ago
It's up to the board at the time they make the grant. Some companies prefer not to allow early exercise to save the minor administrative burden, but it's employee friendly to allow it so lots of places do. Your option paperwork
41.
by jalonso510 11y ago
It's not a matter of a company choosing to allow an 83(b) election. It's a personal tax election that you make by mailing a filing in to the IRS and you can do it without the company's involvement or permision. The problem i
42.
Sierra Trail Mapper(awhite4777.pythonanywhere.com)
1 points by jalonso510 11y ago|0 comments
43.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Well since it's an option, the recipient has the choice to either exercise or not exercise, and they can early exercise at any time they'd like, not just on day one, so it's more flexible for the recipient. On a restricted st
44.
by jalonso510 11y ago
No. Options have to be priced at the time the grant is made, and that price needs to be the then-current fair market value of the company.
45.
by jalonso510 11y ago
You can also sometimes early-exercise an option (if the company authorizes it when they make the grant), which ends up being in practice a lot like buying restricted stock while still technically an option, and I think that's what the
46.
by jalonso510 11y ago
It's perhaps even more clear if you just work in sales rather than engineering for a tech company. Then you have predefined, measurable performance goals and are paid for meeting or exceeding for them each quarter.
47.
AirBnB raising $1B at $24B valuation(wsj.com)
3 points by jalonso510 11y ago|0 comments
48.
by jalonso510 11y ago
it's the former. the filing is just disclosing the offering of shares in the investment vehicle itself, and that sale is expected to be complete this year.
49.
by jalonso510 11y ago
SV's basically already becoming a center of entrepreneurial finance rather than entrepreneurism. Fewer companies can afford office space and fewer non-repeat founders can afford rent in palo alto, mountain view, sf, etc..., so the peo
50.
by jalonso510 11y ago
On the other side of things, Apple has issued about $39 billion of its own bonds over the last couple years. A lot of it is longer term (30 years), but for the comparable bonds with 1-3 year maturities, they're only paying about 1.0%
51.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Reminds me of Ozymandias: I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip
52.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Salesforce is also generating $6b of revenue per year, and is still growing really fast. It's an awesome business to own even if it didn't have the other benefits of improving Microsoft's capabilities/talent.
53.
by jalonso510 11y ago
Are you still in law school? I've been practicing for about five years and still haven't come across a time where something I learned in law school was useful/necessary. Especially for transactional lawyers, it really alrea
54.
by jalonso510 11y ago
right, my point is just that the money is already committed to the VCs for the next 7-10 years so can't change that quickly.
55.
by jalonso510 11y ago
The problem with this analysis is that the VC's investing money in companies aren't choosing between various asset classes - they have funds committed to their investment thesis, so they aren't going to go invest somewhere el
56.
The SaaS Business Model and Metrics(slideshare.net)
2 points by jalonso510 11y ago|0 comments
57.
by jalonso510 11y ago
It's a requirement of Delaware corporate law to have at least one board member. In theory, the board is there as the elected representatives of the stockholders, to make sure that management is acting in the best interests of the stoc
58.
by jalonso510 11y ago
The board is responsible for approving all major company actions that aren't delegated to management. In practice, this is mostly: approving option/stock grants for employees, approving financings, hiring and firing senior execut
59.
by jalonso510 11y ago
It's really uncommon to authorize blank check preferred. That's an interesting idea to keep things confidential, but the major stockholders will care more about maintaining the power over the authorization of new shares. Blank ch
60.
by jalonso510 11y ago
2x preference is way off market these days. Most financings are 1x non-participating. The linked study says they saw multiple preference in 3% of the unicorn deals.

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