Why does it take 5 days for Amazon to deliver my product from their warehouse less than an hour away? How could a startup step up and make the process better, faster?
Here’s the ultimate ideal: Continue reading
Someone asked on HN how we go about allocating equity with our “auction” system. So here it is again:
We total up the cash available and our runway, say $60k for 2 founders and 12 months. Total equity is of course 100%.
So at one extreme, one founder gets $60K over the year in wages and 0% equity while the other gets 100% equity and no wage packet. At the other end, its $30K each for 50% equity each. Somewhere inbetween is a sweet spot.
The core concept is get the cash now, or potentially more later.
Start with the equal split, then begin negotiating for the value per equity point. Eventually you’ll reach a point where you both agree on equity/wage split.
The added bonus is you’ve also technically valued your startup in the process (value per equity point*100) and have an indication of how much your relative belief in the success of the startup.
Since I tend to keep my expenses down and as an example of the last one I took 55% equity for a $7k drop in monthly cash. Cofounder gets a 7K bonus over the year (he was starting a family at the time) and was happy with his 45%.
Voting rights are equal. Always. Do not mess with these in the startup phase as they give a sense of ownership and control that founders need to commit.
The zone has a certain magic around it. Once in, we don’t leave until the project is done, even if that means days and sometimes weeks (or 7 YEARS in the case of that guy who built his own 64-bit operating system because Jesus told him too [I wish I was kidding – check Youtube]). Unfortunately, staying up all night hacking together a masterpiece leads to flexible modification of our natural evolutionary sleep cycles. And this is bad. Bad for our health, bad for those around us and bad for productivity in the days that follow.
Here’s why it’s a good idea to get some f’n sleep before you get that SDF keys permanently imprinted on your face:
Affect of lack of sleep on the following day’s productivity:
Of course it’s fun, else you wouldn’t stay up all night coding an OCR engine for solitaire using Java. But be mindful of the costs associated with doing all nighters without sleep for that masterpiece. Ask yourself regularly if rest and recuperation would lead to better long term productivity, health and wellbeing.
Take regular breaks, breath deep and sleep if you feel you need it.
I’d add to lay off coffee binges, single units, at well timed intervals work best.
Hot tips for dealing with the morning after? Drop a comment.
Today we’re taking a look at a recently announced new tech startup; showoff.io. It stood out as a clear example of some early errors start-ups make on the key basics. These are becoming more frequent as of late as more programmers move into becoming entrepreneurs and are worth highlighting.
Continue reading