Comments on: Should Founders Be Allowed to Take Money off the Table?

By: The Entrepreneur Thesis | CloudAve

The Entrepreneur Thesis | CloudAve — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:36:54 +0000

[...] we should swing for the fences and create a larger company. If I really believe it I ought to let you earn now by taking money off of the table. I have already written about this. I believe our incentives need to be aligned at this [...]

By: Service-now.com Gets $41M Infusion; CEO, CFO Take $37M Off Table : Bloggii – The Global News Aggregator

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:41:11 +0000

[...] That is ~90% of the money received in the tranche and over 55% of the total round. From time to time discussion flares up about the idea of founders taking money off the table in funding rounds. It [...]

By: Service-now.com Gets $41M Infusion; CEO, CFO Take $37M Off Table | qface & sowmo sky

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:49:21 +0000

By: Service-now.com Gets $41M Infusion; CEO, CFO Take $37M Off Table - bruno trani dot info

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:01:29 +0000

By: Service-now.com Gets $41M Infusion; CEO, CFO Take $37M Off Table

Service-now.com Gets $41M Infusion; CEO, CFO Take $37M Off Table — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:50:16 +0000

By: Harry van der Veen

Harry van der Veen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:28:33 +0000

Nice post. Many valid points.

In my opinion (in regards to the spouse topic), it is just very unwise to keep a door open for a spouse to have the opportunity to take your money if things go wrong.

Yes you hook up together in a period that you trust each other, but when people separate the fight can be very very nasty. In that case you just want to make sure you have your assets covered, in this case meaning that you want to avoid that your spouse can try and claim a big cut of your money or your company.

By: Founder Liquidity « Kenfinity

Founder Liquidity « Kenfinity — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:33:51 +0000

[...] leave a comment » A very interesting article by Fred Wilson, “Founder Liquidity“ further refers to an article by Mark Suster, “Should Founders Be Allowed To Take Money Off The Table?” [...]

By: msuster

msuster — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:00:28 +0000

Thanks for the comments. I know about Sharespost and competitors but I recently heard about this idea where founders can exchange a portion of their shares into a diversified pool with other founders. If that's what you do I'd love to learn more. Please email me at mark@grpvc.com Best, Mark

By: larryalbukerk

larryalbukerk — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:38 +0000

Hi Mark,
A topic near to my heart, this is what I do for a living. I agree that releasing the pressure valve a bit does align incentives and in many cases will increase the return for the VC. There are a few ways to do this other than asking the VC to cash out the founder. The first is to participate in an exchange fund for private stock. Founders, if invited, can swap a small % of their stock with other founders, this raises the probability of an exit even though they don't cash out today. I say this selfishly as I run EB Exchange Funds (www.ebexchangefunds.com). Our funds have about 25-30 companies in each fund so plenty of diversification. The other alternative is to sell to a secondary investor. This alternative also validates that you've created value but usually you need a very late stage company or a very hot company to sell for cash.

And Mark maybe we have a similar view because we have plenty in common - we are the same age, I got my MBA at Chicago, I did a few venture backed startups and I have a couple of young kids.
Larry

By: Benjamin Kuo’s Blog » Blog Archive » The pros and cons of founder lock-in

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:17:56 +0000

[...] Suster makes the argument recently that founders should be allowed some way to take money off the table even if a company has yet to hit an exit opportunity. It’s a theme I’ve been hearing a [...]