Thank you to Pablo Fernandez of Flexpoint Tech for creating these notes. To contribute to the TWiST PodNotes archive email us.

Top Insights

• Have complimentary skills with a co-founder.
  • Have tech and sales present in your co-founding team.
• Establish clear equity schemes.
  • Co-founders vest their shares.
  • Employees get options from an ESOP, Employee Stock Option Plan.
• Adapt as your company grows:
  • Hire generalists first, specialists later.
  • Hire people with more experience as you grow.
  • Don't keep someone around just because they were an early employee.
• Outsource non-strategic functions: hr, legal, accounting, office managing.
• Fire fast, be kind but firm, it's not a discussion, involve HR and legal if necessary, have a process that includes a PIP as the last warning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRYVYXZPT6M

Table of Contents

Guests

• Ashley Whitehurst: LAUNCH Managing Director, manager of the syndicate.
• Samantha August: LAUNCH President

Co-founders & First Hires

• Do you have complementary skill sets?
  • You should be working on different problems.
  • Being an engineer can't be learned overnight, so it's good to have an engineer.
• Establish co-founder equity.
  • It's uncommon for all co-founders to stick around to stay until exit.
  • Have a vesting schedule. Commonly: 4 year vesting period with 1 year cliff.
    • Non-vested shares get retired, everybody increases their equity, including employee options pool and investors.
• Funding teams are generally 2 people, as big as 5 sometimes.
  • Not always equal split.
  • A co-founder might join later, with less stock.
  • A co-founder might also invest, and have equity as an investor.
    • They would own common and preferred shares at this point.
• If you have less than 10 employees: hire generalists.
  • They need to be on board with working at a startup.
    • Be tenacious.
    • Be hard working.
    • Require little management.
    • Even specialists tend to have a secondary responsibilities.
• If you have more than 10 employees: start hiring for depth, not breath, of knowledge.
  • Hire for diversity and inclusivity early.
  • Think about what you are spending 30% of your time than you can turn into a job.
  • Around series A: 2 to 5 years of experience.
  • Around series B: 8 to 10 years of experience.
    • Some of the best talent wants product market fit before joining.
• Remote vs. Office.
  • Hire remote staff if you are in a place where it's too hard or too expensive (like SF).
  • Some roles are solitary: developers and writers. They can work well remote.
  • Designing a product requires face to face collaboration.
  • If your team is mixed, avoid forgetting about remote workers and turning them into second class citizens.