Just about every day I get a phone call asking if we purchase used pool tables. Unfortunately we cannot take on any used pool tables right now, but I can point you in the right direction if you want to get rid of yours. We have sold many used tables in the past. Here are some tips and things to remember when selling your pool table.
It’s very difficult to get a lot of money for your pool table. Buyers are looking for a bargain when buying used. Remember moving the table costs money.
Either negotiate that in your price or keep it in mind when listing your final price. Take note of stairs, one piece slates and oversize tables. All cost more to move and none should be moved by an amateur. Start by putting the word out to friends and family that you are looking to sell your table. If you don’t know anyone looking to buy then turn to online classifieds such as Craigslist. The lower your price, the faster you will sell.
Put your table in the best light possible. Take great photos. Try to get the entire pool table in one frame. List your accessories and take photos.
Matching cue racks or pub furniture is always a bonus. Read through our. Learn as much about your pool table as possible so that you can inform your potential buyers, why your pool table is a great deal.
Try and find out what your make and model is going for new (this may be much less than you paid as the market has become quite competitive). Lastly (and probably most importantly), remember that the age of a pool table can trigger many costly things. Tables that are 20-35 years old generally need a lot of work.
Often more work than what they are worth. So if your table is in this age range, has never been recushioned or repocketed it will be very difficult to sell. If you have done work to your table recently, be sure to bring that up to your buyer. An old table can play just like a new table if it has been properly cared for. Don’t forget to read our article.
Jason October 3, 2017 Hello. I thrilled I came across your site because I need some advice. I have been offered a free Olhausen pool table! It's in rough shape.
I will definitely have to refelt and replace the pockets just to play on it. If I keep it I would consider new bumpers and I would have to work with the wood condition of the rails (it would drive me nuts to have it in that shape). I also though about fixing it up and possibly selling it, but I'm not sure if I could make a profit. What are your thoughts? Here are some pictures. Pool Table King September 27, 2017 Hi MJ, so if the previous owners left it behind it's probably not a very expensive pool table.
Also the fact that the rail does not display a manufacturer's nameplate means it's most likely to be a Chinese import table. So to determine whether it's a 3 pc slate or 1 pc slate will be done by age of the pool table. Most every pool table made in the last 25 years is going to be a 3 pc slate design.
It's probably worth between $0-600 it could be closer to the zero if the pool table is up or down stairs. Best wishes, David Kay. Rebecca September 25, 2017 Thank you for your work and for your time on this blog. What a gift for those of us trying to sell. My pool table is striking and 9' though I don't have a clue who the maker is. It has gorgeous detail and we re-felted it with a competition felt. It's distressed mahogany frame.We purchased if for $4000 from a designer in Denver.
It's worth at least 2k but I am willing to part with it for $1000 with the buyer paying for the dismantle and move? I'm unsure where to go with this. I have pictures but honestly, no idea on who the maker is dangit! Pool Table King September 23, 2017 Hello Marceline and thanks for reading my blogs. So the only downside to owning and in your case selling a Leisure Bay pool table is the cushions are not very good. All of the Leisure Bay's I've worked on have had 'dead' cushions. So what that means for you selling a used pool table with possibly 'dead' cushions can dramatically reduce the value of your pool table.
You can confirm your cushions by bouncing a ball and listening for the thud on contact with the cushion. A good cushion will have no sound when a ball rebounds off of it and should easily bounce 3-4 times back and forth before coming to rest.
I'd estimate the value of your pool table at about 400-700 depending on the cushion rubber. Best wishes, PTK. Jackie September 21, 2017 Hi! I am looking to sell my Legacy Billiards 8ft table. I can't remember what model it is and when trying to match it with some tables on their site, there are slight variations.
It has a 3 piece slate, made of solid wood with leather shield pockets. It is only a few years old and has barely been used. I have cues, balls, rack, overhead lights and a few other accessories. Is it possible to send a few pictures to get a valuation on the table so that I can sell it at a fair price? Thank you so much for your time!
Michelle Drake September 9, 2017 Hi everyone. Looking to sell my dad's 8 foot slate pool table. It's an American Shuffleboard Company,I would say 1970s model? I'm 44 and played pool on it when I was 4 so somewhere around there?! I would say in moderate condition,hasn't been played on much for quite awhile.
They live north of Seattle,want the person who buys it to move it. Would come with balls and sticks plus holder. Any general idea for price would be great! Trying to get rid of things not used so they can move to assisted living. Thanks for any help. Matt September 7, 2017 Hey everybody, This is a really great site as I've been trying to make the big decision about my table. It's about 14 years's old now.
It was a gift from my dad for my high school graduation. Before I explain why I am trying to sell it, I can tell you with full honesty and would be happy to show serious buyers that it is a beautiful 8 foot Brunswick Tremont table with I believe an inch of slate and felt that is in near perfect condition. In addition, we have a great Coors Light pool lamp that I will include for any buyer, along with a cool chair for those waiting to shoot, a rack/holder for cues and other accessories, and two sets of pool balls.
I had planned and been trying everything to keep that table, especially after last year when my father passed very rapidly from cancer. I had hoped to make it a family heirloom to pass down.
Unfortunately the real estate market rapidly changed on our street and I am moving much quicker than planned, as is my mom. And I am going to be moving in with my girlfriend into an apartment or townhouse and there just isn't the room for it to get its proper due. It's very difficult sell off some of my dad's items or things he bought for myself and siblings, but it is the right time to sell this table. It has some years on it, but not a ton of mileage, especially in recent years. I realize many people on here have more knowledge and experience and I certainly will not try and pretend I am an expert.
I am just looking for fair value and for somebody who will give that table a proper home. I understand moving the table has its costs so I am flexible on price. But, as I mentioned I am including quite a bit of extras for the potential buyer. I just want to make this quick and easy without haggling.
I am a very straight shooter and after what our family dealt with last year, there are more important things than making a quick buck on a pool table. That being said, I have spoked to some so-called experts who work in this field and they think $1500 is about right for the starting point. I am happy to provide pictures and for the serious buyers, I will absolutely make time for them to come see in person and try it out. Please let me know of your interest and intentions and we can go from there.
I can be reached on my email [email protected] or cell 732-600-2425. Thanks and hope to talk to a few of you soon! Pool Table King July 23, 2017 Hi Jane, unfortunately at this point your used pool table may not have the sales leaning towards you.
Because of its need of re-veneering the legs you have an immediate impact on the value. To start of with you have a low end pool table but to add pre-existing damage that pretty much negates any potential profits you would have seen, plus the pool table is not even set-up to play on. Selling a disassembled pool table is tough because most folks would prefer to 'test out' the table before buying it.
My recommendation would be to donate as is to a boy's & Girl's club or church youth group or teen center. Best wishes, David. Nick July 22, 2017 Hi, I have an antique pool table with a 'Syracuse Billiard Company' plate on it. I found the table in a barn and offered the owner $500 for it. After buying it, I put $2,500 into refurbishing it.
Table is still very sharp and functional, just don't use it. Now I am looking for some guidance about the best way to sell and for how much to offer. Here are the specs: Standard oversize 8 table, 46' x 92' playing surface Built circa 1901 Solid and gorgeous quarter-sawn oak Original slate Meticulously refurbished with original materials and leather pockets Table includes 6 quality cue sticks, cue rack, ball rack, new overhead billiards lamp, chalk, like-new billiard balls, and wire scoring system Table located in Upstate New York and would require disassembly and assembly.
I appreciate your reply! Thanks, Nick. Marla June 23, 2017 I have a 9' Le Mieux Pool Table in Cherry with chocolate pockets with fringe. Purchased in 2001/2002 at Blatt Billiards for $10,000. Comes with cue sticks with standing wood rack. In excellent condition.
It's was professionally taken apart and stored for 5+ years when we moved to a smaller home. I only have a picture of it pre-move - cannot see entire table but you can see it's beautiful and in nearly new condition. Cost of moving is lessened having been taken apart professionally and stored. Pool Table King June 27, 2017 Marla, I would either call Blatt to inquire about re-selling to them or maybe they'll take it in on consignment.
If you strike out with Blatt you should try listing it on Ebay for about 30-40% of what you paid for it. The fact that the pool table is currently disassembled is not to your benefit because some local shoppers may want to 'kick the tires', so to speak.
You are correct in assuming that the cost to move the table will be cheaper because it is already disassembled but I think the cons outweigh the pros, unfortunately. Best wishes, PTK. Yancy Poorman May 15, 2017 We have an A.E. Schmidt, 8x4, Atlas (we think).
It has been in the family for 60-70 years, probably close to 100 yrs. Been in storage the last 35 (climate controlled garage, dismantled, under a cover). We were looking at having it moved and recovered, or trading it in on a newer model. Has the 2.25' bed (slate/backing), leather drop pockets with chrome covers. I could attach some pics to a direct email. Is it worth anything currently, and would it be worth the cost to move, set-up, recover, etc.?
Pretty good condition for it's age. Can send pics to an email request. Thanks, Yancelot. Danielle May 12, 2017 Hi.
Let me start off first by saying thank you for answering all these questions! I am looking at buying a used Connelly San Ramos 8 foot pool table. Seller states to be in very good condition. It was purchased in 2005 and they say they are the original owners. I have not looked at the table myself, and do not currently know the condition of the bumpers or felt. Any specific concerns about this brand up table, or the fact that it is 12 years old? Also, they are willing to sell it for $700 (we're asking $950 and claim they paid $2500 for it), but I have to spend another $500 to move it.
Thoughts on the price? Jonathan Owen April 16, 2017 My dad found a nice gandy pool table at a habitat for humanity in town for $400. He went ahead and bought it for the house as we love playing pool when we rent houses on vacations. It has slate, and was refelted a few days after he purchased it. The only Gandys I can find online are old coin operated ones being sold by out of business pool halls. This one seems to have good quality wood, and 6 leather pockets.
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What would a home use style Gandy like this be worth approximately since their aren't many for reference online? Billiard Mama April 16, 2017 Larry sorry to hear about your having to sell your Gandy pool table. Gandy tables are very well built and would be a great asset to anyone's would be gameroom. Unfortunately what you paid for it means nothing in regards to resale value. I'd estimate it's worth between $1200-1500. If you have bitter feelings about letting go of such a quality piece you could always disassemble the pool table and take/store with you until a future date/place is attained when you can enjoy your Big G once again!
Pool Table King April 16, 2017 Becky, sorry to hear of your loss but unfortunately the Irving Kaye pool table is somewhat obsolete by today's coin-op pool table standards. Most bars will not be interested in this table as the coin operation is not as durable as a Valley, Dynamo or a Global coin-op. It is however a solid unit for a home or garage pool player. I'd put a value of $1000 if the cloth and cushion rubber are in good working order. Keep in mind the cost to move a pool table like this can be more expensive because of the one piece slate used in Irving Kaye's. Best wishes, PTK. Joseph March 14, 2017 I am looking at a used table on craigslist that claims to be a Peter Vitalie.
But the pictures I got show a 6 bolt corner joint and bolt on leg, and the seller claims the slate is 1 inch. To me it looks like an American Heritage Eclipse. I know American Heritage bought the Peter Vitalie inventory. Did they rebrand and AH tables as Vitalie or is this a scammer putting a Vitalie names plate on an import? I could email the pictures if the links do not work. Salina March 11, 2017 Hi, I live in Riverside.
I have an 8' Olhausen York I purchased from a private party 4 years ago. It has only been used a handful of times since.
The room it's in is awkward to play in, and I hate seeing the table and the space to go waste. I can store it in my garage until we can move to a bigger house, but it would be exposed to Southern California temperature/weather fluctuations because our garage is not insulated. It is in beautiful condition, and I was thinking $1800-2000 would be a fair asking price. Do you think that's too high? With delivery on top of that? March 9, 2017 Im contemplating on buying an Olhausen 8ftx4 Santa Ana model that was made in 2003.
The asking price is $2500 the negotiated price is $1500 (with 6 cue sticks aramith premium balls, basic wall mounted cue stick holder, rack). The condition of the table is still good visual wise (felt pockets, table).
I have seen tables 3 to 5 ears old around the same price. The cushions and the felt has never been changed. Will I be paying too much. He said the dealers offered him $1000 but he turned them down. It does not have the Italian slate sticker on the slab so I don't know if it is Brazilian. I have read that if the Olhausen tables with Brazilian slate does not come with Accufast cushions.
I can send pictures if necessary. Tom allen February 9, 2017 I am trying to sell my Olhausen Eclipse pool table. It is cherry wood with the rounder sculpted legs, not the straight ones.
I the cloth and cushions are in great shape and it has leather pockets. The table is 4x8 and in almost new shape. It is probably 6 or 7 year olds and has really not been used much since it was purchased. It is a 3 piece slate top. We are moving and I am not sure I want to pay the cost of having the dealer take it apart, ove it then reassemble it. I am just wondering what I can expect for a selling price. I can provide pictures if that would help in your appraisal.
Thanks and I look forward to your reply. Amber January 3, 2017 Hello, I have been asked to try and sell my bosses antique snooker table however I am not sure how much it could be worth.
He purchased it in England in the 1990’s from Sir William Bentley Billiards in Wiltshire England. They are “makers & restorers of the world's most beautiful Billiard, Snooker & Pool tables.” The table is made of mahogany, I think is 19th century and has the original slate (much thicker than modern slate. It was originally 12’ by 6’ but he had them professionally reduce the table to 10’ by 5’ because it was too difficult to fit in the house at full size.
It is in excellent condition. My boss did not take the best photos of it however I can send them to you for a better idea? Denise November 15, 2016 Hi Pool Table King, About a year ago my parents bought a pool table from a friend who had the felt replaced right before. They used it a bit around the holidays, but are now looking to sell it as it is never used anymore. I'm not sure where to find the model or serial number, but there is a 'diversified products corporation' logo by the ball return. I know that company went out of business in 1998 but I'd like to try to learn the value of this pool table before I sell it. It's in good condition, the only physical damage is one of the corner rail caps is dented (probably from the original move) but it doesn't affect game play.
Pool Table King February 26, 2016 Well Morgan I'm sad to hear you're considering ditching one of America's finest pool table manufacturers. If it truly is a Connelly San Carlos which by the way we sell for $3200 I'd ask anywhere from $1000-1500. Morgan I'd seriously try to talk you into having the pool table professionally disassembled and stored in your garage or similar storage spot until you were able to utilize the fun you'd reap in play Billiards. I hope you make the right decision. Best wishes, David.
Rich February 9, 2016 Hi, I am considering buying a World of Leisure Houston pool table on craigslist. There is not a picture of the actual table as the owner says it is already disassembled. But it is the oak version (is that the one at the top of this page?) It is hard to find much info on this table-is it a quality table? Do you know if it falls into the economy grade with the.75 slate or would it be the 1' slate? The price is $800 and that includes having it delivered, setup, and re-felted. It seemed strange that a craigslist item would include all of that, but it seems the company he bought it from is going to do the move and setup/re-felt and they will take a chunk of what he makes on selling it. What do you think of this table, and the deal in general?
Pool Table King September 13, 2015 Well, yes and no. Yes because you mentioned that the seller claims the cushions were replaced. This would only need to be done if the pool table was up in age, usually 25-30 years. And no, if it's a newer Brunswick the cushion rubber is inferior to the older stuff and most definitely would be going 'dead' after about 15 years. But either way I don't think it really matters, except to say the older Bruns tables are American made. Not that this makes for a better 'playing experience', just American. Best wishes, Dave.
Pool Table King January 1, 2015 happy new year clay, unfortunately used pool tables are a dime a dozen right now and therefore i would strongly recommend that you disassemble and store it until you're ready to reclaim your mancave again. Goldenwest is a very well made pool table and unfortunately people who are scouring craigslist for the cheapest thing they can find would only willing to pay the median price of a used pool table. Another route you can you can take is donating your pool table to the boys and girls clubs or church youth/teen center near your home.
We can assist in either the moving of the pool table or disassembling it and storing it inside your garage. Best wishes, dave. Michael March 6, 2014 My wife and I are looking to purchase a home and the seller is also looking to sell his pool table along with some other items.
Althoug I'd play if we had one, the only reason we are thinking of buyin git is because it is already at the house. He said it is an American Heritage, nice, only used about 10 times and about 20 years old. We are waiting to receive some pictures to see if we want to purchase it, but he is selling it for $2000. Looking at the resale values here, it seems to be a bit high for a resale. With the info provided, can you give us a value range? I'll send the pictures when I get them for a more accurate appraisal. Pool Table King March 6, 2014 Hello Michael, your instincts are correct.
For a Malaysian or Chinese made pool table, (not sure where they're making them these days), it's a ridiculously high price. Not to mention the fact that most every American Heritage pool table that I've ever worked on has had a couple of 'dead' cushions.
This is mostly due to the fact that the manufacturer uses some of the poorest quality cushion rubber in the billiard industry. Offer him $500 or tell him to get it out of there. For two grand you can buy a used, well made, American pool table such as a Connelly, Golden West or Olhausen.
Good luck and thanks for your question, Dave. Dkbilliards.com.
Pool Table King October 24, 2013 hello boss, you know this brunswick model pool table looks a lot like one i've worked on before. Not this one but one around here in so cal.
But i seem to remember that is was not a slate table. Brunswick had a line of lower priced, entry level pool tables with playing fields that were made from 'honeycomb'. Which is a fancy name for non-slate. Just be careful, check the table out yourself. Crawl underneath and feel the bottom of the 'slate' if it feels cold or cool to the touch then it's slate. Good luck, dave. Pool Table King August 14, 2013 Hi Terry, that's a great looking, well built American pool table.
Unfortunately you've got two negatives stacked against you. First it's not assembled for someone to look at or play on and test out. Second, it's a used pool table and in today's used table market means it's probably worth less than half of what you paid for it. What most people don't understand are the intricate differences between Chinese pool tables (which have flooded the market) and quality American made pool tables, all they see is a pool table, and in your case they won't even see that. If you find trusting buyer, a fair price would be between $1500-2000 with all the accessories that accompany the pool table.
Valley Pool Table Used
Good luck and let me know if I can be of further assistance, Dave. Pool Table King May 12, 2013 Hey Greg thanks for your question. The value of your used World of Leisure pool table really depends on which model you have. If it's one of their older models built here in California then it really comes down to the thickness of the cabinet and whether or not it's solid wood or plywood veneer. If it's a 1.5 inch thick solid wood cabinet and the slates are one inch thick backed with either poplar or particle wood, then I'd say you could ask $1000 or higher depending on exactly which model you have and assuming the cushion rubber and leather pockets are not on their way to needing replacement. On the other hand if you've got one of World of Leisure's economy models with.75 inch veneer or solid wood cabinet with a.75 inch thick un-backed slates and assuming the cushion rubber and leather pockets still have five years of life or better, I'd put a value of $500 on it.
We're also assuming that the buyer will be paying for all disassembly, moving and re-installation work, which can cost anywhere between $375-575 depending on unforeseen problems, distances and/or difficult exit and entry in both origin and destination locations. Hope this helps, Dave.
Bart Selman November 17, 2016 Aloha Dave, I have a WOL table as well. It looks like its not an economy model. I would like to disassemble and move this table. Is there anywhere I can find step-by-step disassembly instructions for a 3-slate WOL table?
It is very similar to their Houston model for sale on their site. No serial that I could find, but stickers on the slate 'Italian Slate'. Plenty of shims here and there, leveling to be sure.
I am very capable, and would like to learn the proper and true way to disassemble/re-assemble a 3-slate table. Can you help? Frank Matteucci May 7, 2013 Hello, I own a Brunswick-Balke-Collender 4 slate table from the 1880's.
It's been in my basement since my father bought it for me back in 1965. The wood is all there and needs to be refinished, but the guy that replaced the cloth said don't touch it and let the someday new owner do it. I have looked on a lot of antique pool table sites and have not found another one like it. I know the story about this table from the turn of the last century.
I am thinking about putting this table up for sale but have no idea what I should ask - any ideas where I should start? Elizabeth March 2, 2017 Howdy sandy, That is good offer for that what u are selling them as very nice pool table! I assume it may be going down $500.00 cuz I will drive to meet u there from Colorado, I assume u may reside in kalamazoo or portage,mich, I lived there in few yrs ago. Is that correct in mich or out of state?
Are those table weight heavy or lighter? How many men carried that table? What color felt was it came with? Can u send me photo of them all?
Let me know about it? Thanks and warm regard,elizabeth. May 10, 2011 Hi Rory, I am the president of the Billiards Club in Casta del Sol, a retirement community in Mission Viejo. The Association is looking into ways to sell or donate an older pool table as part of a renovation project. The table is a nine footer made by American Billiards of Los Angeles. I believes they are no longer in business. The base of the table is showing its age (30 years).
The felt and cushions are like new since they are replaced every seven years. I do not know the number of slate pieces, but there are at least two. The table is at ground level.
The final call on disposing of the table is up to our association Board of Directors. I am the liaison. I cannot figure out how to use gravator so I will try to send pix to your company's regular email address in care of your name. Molly January 6, 2016 I have an opportunity to buy a Goldern West pool table. What is it worth? We would need to go up some stairs (abt 4)and there is no local installer as we are in a rural area (along with the table). Here's the description: Bella La Fleur Standard 4x8, Belgian Ball Set, oak, pro-sights, leather pockets, african hardwood rail run.
Of course, we're looking for a bargain with six teens at home but what is fair? What is a bargain? It's been for sale for a while and started at around $4000.00 but is now down to $2500. It comes with accessories such a cues, table cover, etc.
Thanks Ben, It's a light oak cabinet with the black wooden legs and black levelers on the legs. I'm having some issues with my photobucket account or I'd post a picture here. The serial number is 006799. The scoring mechanism is the beads. It has the six sided bearing nuts with the split bearings, and the center logo is the Tornado T with product of Valley below it. The serial plate states that it's a product of Valley from Bay City, MI, but there are no external labels or markings on the cabinet.
Johnny, quit smoking those roaches dude, and roll ya a decent doob, lol. When Valley bought Tornado and moved the factory to Bay City, they started making tables in mid?1997 they took the old brown marble like it was and added the little 'hood ornament' down under the coin mech.next to the leg it was a 'Valley' (logo) raised plastic piece glued on the surface of the laminate (this run was short) im sure they will have the metal plate -'made in Bay City MI' etc with serials #000000 and up (started over when MiI made the tables) which afterwards the Blonde tables (Taj Teak) were made, with that serial,sounds like a 1999 or late 1998.
The central value store case (buy and hold) is a simple one. Privacy features are valuable for specific applications, and low fees make a big difference for specific use cases. For example, a payment network would need to be high scale and low cost. However, for the value store use case one can argue little additional innovation is needed for bitcoin outside of 'don't fall over on performance and don't have a civil war'. Stability is a good thing when a lot of your money is tied up in something. Bitcoin perhaps should be more like C avionics software than a javascript social media app. 'Measure twice cut once' vs 'move fast and break things'2.
(ii) Attacks via internal civil war or external government action. The much anticipated Segwit2X fork failed to materialize in November. However, the doomsday scenario in bitcoin is a war between developers and miners with coordinated attacks on bitcoin infrastructure on one side of a fork or another.
Similarly, a government actor could try to attack bitcoin nodes rendering the network ineffective. Government attacks could come as regulatory action, cyberattack, or adding sufficient hash power to take over the protocol (for example if China nationalized its bitcoin miners). (iii) Dilution of what 'Bitcoin' means. With each subsequent fork the branding of bitcoin becomes more confusing.
In a world of Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin Zero which is the real bitcoin? What if hash power gets diluted down with each fork as a subset switches over to mine the new coin? (iv) Mining power centralization.
Mining power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a small number of actors. If mining blocks surpass 50% of the bitcoin network a miner can abuse its position in the network.
The extreme example would be a state actor taking control of the bitcoin network and seizing or freezing assets. A less extreme example would be a large mining company abusing its position to censor or modify the blockchain for its own gain. This may actually be the biggest threat to bitcoin in the medium term. The cryptocurrency world faces a tragedy of the commons and free rider issue: 1. Some projects such as Tezos are helping to rectify this by thinking about, and other incentive mechanisms. However, the corporate structures and token distributions used by many other crypto projects today tend to exacerbate a lack of ongoing incentives.
In this post I review common crypto corporate structures and brainstorm an alternative approach to try. Existing Project Structures (AKA Where Do All The Tokens Go?) Crypto projects tend to have the following structures2:. Individual founders or early scientists or developers. They tend to get 10% of the initial token on a vesting schedule. (In some cases this can be as high as 20%+).
A company, typically an LLC or C-corporation. The company raises money, hires the initial developer staff etc. The company often ends up with anywhere from 1-2% to 15% of the tokens post-ICO. A foundation, often set up in Zug Switzerland for tax reasons. The foundation mission is typically to watch out for the long term development of the protocol. In some cases, how it is to go about this mission or how it will divvy work with the corporation is uncertain. The foundation often receives 1-10% of the tokens and may use tokens to e.g.
Pay developers for bounties on projects. A venture fund. Some projects have raised enough money via ICO or pre-sale that they can set up a fiat currency fund to invest in companies that use their protocol. The primary challenges and nuances with the model above includes: (1) People get rich fast and may drop out.
The early distribution of a large amount of highly liquid tokens to early team members can cause people to of the project once they are rich enough. (2) Most of the value escapes from the company or foundation. By distributing tokens to early team members and founders, value escapes from the company/foundation and therefore the future of the protocol. By splitting tokens between the foundation and the company, there is further dilution of effort and focus. What should the company versus foundation do? And why create multiple separate pools of tokens when you need to have a concentrated pool to incentivize ongoing contributions to the protocol? (Besides the tax efficiency of a Swiss foundation).
(3) Most of the work is done by employees of the company. If you look at the code commits to major crypto projects outside of Bitcoin, most of the work is done by the 10-20 people that largely work for the corporation that started the cryptocurrency project.
Is it possible to create incentives for these individuals to stick around as well as for the teams to scale to hundreds of people ongoing3? This dynamic is nothing new in the open source world. The open source projects that have tended to do best recently have companies or foundations whose focus is to monetize the protocol or project, and therefore will help pay for ongoing development (Docker, Mozilla/Firefox, Android/Google etc.). What Can We Learn From Technology Startups? The standard technology company model may hold some lessons. This system, while imperfect, evolved over the last 50 years in an attempt to balance incentives and liquidity4. (1) Founder equity is pooled into general corporate equity.
By keeping value in the company, shares accrete aggregate value that can be distributed to others. Imagine for example if the Google founders directly got their share of 30% of the profits of Google, instead of it going to the Google bottom line. Google overall as a company would be much less valuable and less able to hire and incentivize employees. (2) There is limited liquidity for founders and employees before the company has a public (and late) liquidity event.
Secondary sales by employees and founders are quite limited and are coordinated by the company in a board approved manner. (3) Venture capital is invested stepwise based on the company hitting milestones that increase company valuation. Instead of raising $200M up front, the company will raise a of a few million, aof $10M, and then later rounds that are much larger if the company is working. If the company does not work, it can not raise more money. This Darwinian incentive can be brutal from a founder's perspective but creates incentives to show progress and keep working hard. The venture model clearly does not solve all the problems mentioned - for example the early employees at Google eventually left the company.
Valley Pool Table For Sale
However, there is an equity base that can pay for ongoing work. The difference of course is the value of a technology stock is driven by future cash flows of the company, while the value of a crypto company is often solely the value of the token held by the company. Is it possible to combine token economics with the useful parts of the venture model? In the crypto world, the parallel brainstorm proposal would be: 1. Put all founder, early developer, company, and foundation equity into a single entity.
Lets assume for now it is the corporation, although it could be the foundation. This means 10-30% of the token resides in a single entity that can hire and incentivize employees at scale. At the founding of the project, or hybrid / (which is what most crypto projects today do). Give mainly equity instead of tokens. Instead of receiving a large major token distribution, most of the compensation that is distributed to founders and employees is in the form of vesting equity in the corporation.
As new people join, they are issued shares backed by tokens. If their work increase the value of the token, they directly benefit from it.
Raise money based on equity, not tokens. You can still do token sales if you want. The company now has a non-token basis to raise money.
If for example NewCoinCo holds $500 million of its own token, it should be able to raise money as a stock sale from investors at that valuation. This could be done as a crowdsale or as a more traditional financing event. As the token rises in value, the corporation would do another fundraise via an equity sale at a higher valuation and hire more people.
In other words, there is now a recurrent, milestone-based funding model for a crypto project besides selling tokens. The money it raises via equity sales would then go to pay for ongoing development and marketing and the token base is not diluted down. One common issue with some crypto projects is their lack of experienced managers and ability to scale their teams beyond 10-20 people. As part of the equity sales, founders could ensure a subset of investors buying stock would be on the hook to help the company to hire, with marketing and strategy, and other related aspects of the business like a tech investor would. The big drawback of course is that companies continue to generate revenue, while most crypto projects often have value solely through token value.
This means that at some eventual time point you will need to sell or distribute tokens and dilute value of the company. An ICO would still be held to bring capital into the company as well as create a liquid token and community incentives. By raising money in advance of the ICO, it might help create additional clarity between the equity (a security) and the token ( for the major projects). While there are a number of items to be worked out above, this may be a mechanism to increase the number of engineers, community managers, and marketers focused on a protocol over a longer period of time. The challenge to this hybrid token/equity model is that in a world of nigh-infinite capital, it is hard to defer fast and early liquidity for founders contributors and investors. In some sense it is a giant - how to trade off short term liquidity versus building a persistant corporate entity and scaled team to drive your protocol forward for decades? As a founder of myself, I can relate viscerally to the challenges inherent in this question.
Other Ongoing Incentives on how to provide ongoing incentives for protocol development including inflation, developer bounties etc. He asks the question of how do you build an evolutionary advantage into the protocol itself, so it will have incentives for it to continue to evolve. Thinking up front about token distributions and corporate structure may be a complimentary approach to also lay a solid early foundation for the long term contribution and success of a protocol. Choosing Financing Structures and laid out a set of interesting comments captured below: The 'joint stock company' concept is a few centuries old.
Crypto is a structural shift in many ways, so an open question is whether it should/will also change corporate structures. There might be 3 common structures that will emerge: A. Token-only funding. Projects that require censorship-resistance as a core feature might need to fund natively via a crowd sale of tokens (as institutional capital may be scared off and there may be value in maintaining anonymity of founders). Similarly, there may be crypto projects where the userbase is inherently skeptical of any institutional involvement - which would also default to token-sales only. Finally, teams may simply decide to forgo venture capital. In all cases, there may still be best practices that emerge that signal quality efforts such as multi-year vesting via smart contracts.
Another approach other then vesting would be to have a fixed budget of tokens per year that are rewarded to the team for their efforts. Existing token holders (outside of the core team) could vote on distribution of tokens/budget per year to the team. This would be something to experiment with and is similar to some of the. Venture Capital (VC) + token projects. The projects will not require censorship-resistance and may accumulate value via ongoing cash flow (e.g.
REP/Augur) or via token value increases. Key questions to ask before going down the token route per Dan: (i) Why do you need your own token versus just using underlying ETH? (ii) Why can't someone just fork your protocol and remove the token? Some tokens may actually be considered securities by the SEC. In this case, a hybrid VC + token model, or VC-only model is most likely to be used. VC-only financing models.
VC-driven financing could occur in a number of scenarios that include non-token business models. For example, if there is no pre-sale and tokens are only available via mining or another distribution mechanism. Obviously, more traditional business models like coinmarketcap.com monetizing via ads would also avoid the need for token. There is still a lot to sort out in terms of best corporate structure and rewards for crypto projects. The most important things to keep in mind are (1) how do you create sustainable rewards/value that can be used to hire or incentivize teams over decades (2) how to create transparency on economic rewards and incentives. Thanks to, and for comments on this post. NOTES 1 Obviously, there are a number of other reasons to contribute to a protocol.
These include wanting to make an impact, believing in the mission of the protocol, working with other brilliant people, and peer admiration and feedback. This is true of any open source project.
2 These numbers can mean radically different things due to potential inflation (or lack thereof) of the currency, the number of rounds they plan to do (e.g. Doing a second round), and the potential to use Dutch auctions or other mechanics (a la ). This is also all further complicated by proof of work versus proof of stake systems, as well as miner rewards.
3 The current way for people to address this is to raise a lot of money via a pre-sale and use it to salary people. They can also give employees tokens or sell more tokens to pay for employees. However, at very large scale this model breaks down - by ongoing token sales you keep diluting the value captured by the company/foundation. If this dilution is faster then the appreciation of the token than you can have a collapse in the ability to pay a great team. RELATED POSTS, MARKETS RELATED POSTS, FUNDRAISING. Twitter is a product that is used and loved by hundreds of millions of users. The core product has needed the same basic features for the last 7 or 8 years.
Here are the things I think Twitter should build. In this post, I stay away from areas I no longer understand for Twitter (e.g. Zero rated Twitter / developing world products) or big picture ideas (e.g. How to remake the timeline).
Even simple changes could go a long way for the product. Tweet structure. Long form content. A key rule in product design is if. Tweet storms are clear examples of users wanting to write longer form content on Twitter.
The simplest approach to longer form content would be to allow the linking of tweets as a formal product feature and structure a la tweet storms. It is clear users want standard longer form content as well. Twitter users will often screenshot a longer post written in e.g. IPhone notes app, and then post the image as their tweet.
Obviously this content is now not searchable on Twitter. A simple, blog-like longer form editor may be a solid approach to capture this behavior on Twitter. This may include having the Tweet as the headline for a longer post, or a pull quote.
Either way, being able to write a longer piece is one use case the Twitter userbase keeps trying to do. The actual 140 character nature of Tweets does not need to change in your stream as part of this.
Everything could be a standard tweet with the ability to expand to see more inline. A standard design approach is to get out of the way of your users. Just as Twitter eventually added @ mentions and replies, they should get out of their own way and add long form content. There is clear user demand.
Editable tweets. You should be able to go back and edit a tweet. A simple affordance would be the ability to switch to prior versions of the tweet / tweet history. Lots of wikis, Google docs, and other products have simple ways to reveal this. Content controls. Muting content areas. I don't care about certain sports but get deluged in my Twitter feed during game time.
I should be able to keep following people but turn off specific topics. I would love to take a break from 'political Twitter' and turn off politics for a few days. Twitter has the machine learning chops to build a feature like this. Blocking people. There are classes of hyper aggressive people on Twitter who all attack someone in concert. There should be bulk controls for this.
Twitter also has the odd feature that if you block someone, they are notified about it. It is unclear why you need to let someone know if they are blocked. It is the social networking equivalent of giving someone the finger. Twitter can make its platform a much nicer place to exist. SPAM and fake users. It looks like Twitter is finally working on this feature in earnest. I have instances where I have been followed by 10 new people and 8 of them look like fake users to me.
If I can tell a user is fake, a machine learning algorithm should do it even better. Fake users should be automatically removed from the platform. Growth and re-engagement. Email digest a la Nuzzel. Nuzzel is a news/social content digest that really works.
Every day I read 80% of the links that Nuzzel sends me based on my Twitter feeed. Twitter's email digest is largely untargeted and therefore is largely ignored.
Twitter could re-engage me by upping the quality of their email digest, thereby pulling me back to the product daily. Alternatively, they could push me the same content via a notification, or into my Twitter feed. If a Nuzzel-like page were added within Twitter itself I would go there with some frequency. Being able to vote up and down links on such a page could create a distributed / personalized Reddit like experience.
Maybe this could replace the 'moments' tab? Overall Twitter is a product whose useful core has evolved only slightly in the last few years. My hope is that some day the above features get added. This should increase utilization, engagement, and growth on a product percentages of humanity use and love daily.
Thanks to for comments on this post. RELATED POSTS. Every 5 years, the VC community comes up with new negotiation tactics that work well against first time entrepreneurs. Two such recent approaches in the VC community are (i) simplified term sheets that lack some of the details needed to assess all terms being offered and (ii) an emphasis on post-money valuations. (i) Simplified Term Sheets A few years ago, venture firms would send entrepreneurs a 3 to 5-page terms sheet that would spell out the explicit details of their offer. These term sheets would contain the main highlights entrepreneurs tend to focus on (mainly board and valuation), but also got into the details on terms that are key such as protective provisions (special rights for investors).
This meant that signing a term sheet came with an explicit view of all the major items that are part of the round. More recently, venture firms have been sending 1-page term sheets which have simplified out a number of important details. One term sheet I helped a founder with recently contained only 200 words (this is 10-20% the length of term sheets just a few years ago)! This means the founder was being asked to sign a term sheet without knowing a subset of key terms that would impact future financings, potential company product directions, the ability to exit or sell the company, and limits or rights on employee option pools etc1.
Once you sign a term sheet as a founder, you lose most of the leverage in a with a VC. You are typically locked into a 30 day exclusivity period where you can not entertain other VC offers. Founder etiquette at this point is to tell the other funds you have been talking to that you have chosen your.
Before signing a term sheet, you should have your lawyer fill out the following items in a simplified term sheet: 1. Board structure. How many common and preferred are there? Is there a CEO-specific seat or would a new CEO seat get created if the founder/CEO steps down or is fired? One common VC trick is to write the common stock (i.e.
Founder) board seats as 'The holders of Common Stock shall elect two directors, one of whom will be the then-serving Chief Executive Officer.' While the later part of this sentence seems innocuous, it gets interpreted by overzealous lawyers to mean that if a founder ceases to be CEO they lose their board seat which goes to a new CEO (i.e. It is a 'CEO' seat, rather then a founder/common board seat. If the board hires in a new external CEO, the founders may immediately lose control of the company. Protective provisions. Protective provisions are the set of special rights investors in a financing get to protect their minority investment. Protective provisions include2: Future financings.
Often VCs ask for the right to block any future preferred stock sales by the company. If you agree to this block, only have it apply to preferred financings with terms worse then the round you just did.
In other words, if you get terms equal to, or better, then your current round you should be able to close future financings without approval. Most investors ask to be able to block future exits by the company. If you agree to such a term, it should be voted on collectively by all future rounds of stock. Should all vote together, in a manner representative of shareholdings in the company, on such rounds. Otherwise you can have multiple different VCs, each with their own incentive, block exits.
Company product lines. Some VCs insert language that they can block changes in major lines of business for a company. While this may make sense for a private equity buy out, it does not make sense for an early stage company and should be taken out.
A commonly asked for provision is the ability to change the size or composition of the board. Talk to advisors or angels to get advice on this in the context of your own startup. Any protective provisions that one round of investors gets (e.g. Your Series A) will often carry over into future rounds (, etc.). Be careful in the precedents you set.
Liquidation Preference. 1X non-participating preferred is the most typical structure for a series A or B financing. If a VC asks for anything more complex it usually implies something weird about your company (strange re-cap?), your valuation (is it super high prematurely?) or your investors (are they taking advantage of you?). Ask your lawyer for more details3. You should shoot for an option pool that allows you to hire the team needed to get you to the next fundraise or major company milestone.
It is good to add a little padding to this. To see how option pool may chance effective valuation,. (ii) Valuation: Pre-money versus post-money. Both pre- and post-money negotiations have been around for decades. While there is not a single right way to do it, many first time entrepreneurs tend to be less savvy in their understanding of a post-money valuation negotiation.
Setting a company valuation by negotiating its pre-money first means that you and the VC agree on a price for the company before the financing occurs. You then add in SAFE and convertible note dilution and new money in, and end up with a total valuation for the company. Negotiating valuation based on post-money means that no matter how many SAFEs or convertible notes are outstanding, or even the total new money raised, the company ends up with the same post-money valuation4. A pre-money valuation negotiation tends to be more transparent to a first time entrepreneur. Your company is worth a certain amount before you raise money. Once the money comes in it should be worth more in a manner that scales with capital. A company that has raised $15M should be worth $5M more than an identical company that raise $10M.
Negotiating valuations around post-money tend to distort these economics. VCs will negotiate the round valuation around the post-money valuation in some cases as it leads to significant additional dilution (and a much lower pre-money) then most first time founders realize: A. More money in the round can be incredibly dilutive.
SAFE Conversion can jack down your pre-money significantly. Lets take a simple example for (A) above. Suppose you are raising $5M. If you set your post-money at $25M (for a $20M valuation before the round is funded) then you take 20% dilution for the $5M.
Say that a few weeks after you sign the term sheet another investor wants to come in for an additional $5M. In a post-money situation, your valuation before the round drops to $15M and you just sold 40% of the company ($10M/$25M). In contrast, in a pre-money situation the company itself is deemed worth $20M before any money comes in.
If you raise $5M, you similarly dilute by 20% and end up with a $25M post. However, when the incremental $5M comes in, you still start off with a $20M pre-money valuation, and end up with a $30M post. In other words, you dilute by 33% instead of 40%. This 7% incremental dilution makes a huge different in ownership. SAFE notes effectively act the same way the incremental new money coming in above does. They can jack down your effective valuation if you negotiate the valuation on a post-money basis. If you raise $5M in SAFE notes and they convert at a 20% discount, you may have just dropped your pre-money by $6M ($5M + 20% of $5M).
Caveat emptor! Post-money valuation based negotiations have become more common in the last 2 years and I think is a way for VCs to take benefit from entrepreneurial ignorance around SAFE conversion mechanics and how financing rounds work. As an entrepreneur, you should. Notes 1 A good lawyer should spot and put these terms back in. 2 There are a number of other protective provisions that I don't mention - e.g.
The ability to issue new stock is often blocked by investors to prevent unlimited dilution etc. 3 I can also understand that VCs probably simplified term sheets to make negotiation faster/simpler with founders and to emphasize the terms first time founders care the most about.
4 There have always been pre-money and post-money driven term sheets. However, the market has largely been shifting to post-money term sheets more recently. I am guessing this is due to SAFEs. There is nothing 'wrong' with a post-money term sheet a priori - although it does create inflexibility in adding money to the round over time and sets a cap on potential fundraise size. Worst case you can always amend your financing docs.
Related Posts. After the, every major bank decided it needed to do something about cryptocurrencies and blockchain. The way many banks responded to this disruptive technology was: Step 1.
Set up a special internal 'blockchain group'. These groups were supposed to explore. The cryptocurrencies themselves were largely viewed as speculative and the 'interesting parts' were. Have the blockchain group focus on building private chains. Focus at most banks was on private chains and more recently some smart contract work. Nothing was adopted or launched, it was more R&D and prototyping. Have the CEO brag about blockchain group, then do nothing.
When asked by bank's Board of Directors about crypto, the CEO could point to the largely impotent blockchain group and say 'we are all over this blockchain thing!!' The Board would break into polite applause and the topic would quickly move on to something more important, like FX risk being hedged and what fancy restaurant to convene to for martinis post-board meeting1.
It's the Currencies Stupid! In the last 6 months, large banks & brokerages have started to wake up to the other side of crypto - in particular the currencies themselves3. This is largely driven by high net worth clients, pension funds, and others, starting to ask the asset and wealth management divisions of banks how they can participate in BTC (bitcoin), ETH (ethereum), and other cryptocurrencies. Banks now have an incentive to adopt cryptocurrencies - if it becomes part of the basket of assets they manage for a client, they can take an annual cut.
For example, if a bank charges 0.5% of AUM (assets under management) and a client wants to put 5% of their assets into crypto, the bank has a strong incentive to manage it for their client. If the bank pushes the client out to hird party sites or wallets, the bank is loosing the 0.5% a year they charge for assets directly under management. In order to be able to meet the demands of their clients, banks are looking for solutions that allow their clients to participate in BTC et al. In a way that the bank directly manages and controls (or, at a minimum, that the bank can charge for). The following products need to be built for financial institutions to fully adopt cryptocurrencies: Mutual funds and ETFs: Financial products that allow people to easily buy a basked of crypto currencies.
Major banks would love to enable their interested clients to buy into a mutual fund or single currency tracking fund as part of their AUM basket alongside various baskets of stocks, bonds, and gold. This prevents the need for them or their client to think about the and instead the mutual fund can add or drop positions over time. Recent funds for high net worths include, the, and others. In parallel a number of efforts to create the first have been ongoing. Crypto custody / wallet / cold storage.
When talking to private wealth managers about their crypto needs there is strong interest in a wallet where they can store their client's cryptocurrencies, track changes in value for clients, and of course charge their% of AUM. Obviously has done amazing work in providing a wallet and cold storage for individuals and have made some interesting moves like their. In parallel, companies like were founded with the original intention of provided a bitcoin vault. However, from discussions I have had with the wealth management community, there is still not a comprehensive solution in this area.
The pioneering early hedge fund of the industry, and more recently, have pioneered the crypto hedge fund market. There are a dozen new entrants coming, The banking and brokerage industry would benefit from additional high quality long funds as well as algorithmic trading funds that their clients can participate in, and can be sold to high net worth investors as part of a basket of goods. Intriguingly a lot of the crypto trading at hedge funds started as young employees trading crypto for their own accounts.
This will likely change soon with bank's internal hedge funds also participating directly in the crypto market. Derivatives exchanges. As people buy and sell different cryptocurrencies the ability to create complex hedges, options and derivatives becomes increasingly important. This can both dampen volatility in a position as well as create leverage on capital. For both market liquidity to accelerate, and hedge funds to thrive a strong derivatives broker and market needs to emerge. As an example, recently received US CFTC (Commodity Future Trading Commision) approval to move ahead in this market.
There will likely be more entrants here soon. With the above product areas fleshed out, we will see an accelerated adoption of cryptocurrencies due to accelerated (and finally real) adoption in the banking and brokerage world. Notes 1 I tend to imagine board meetings at global banks always ending with martinis for some reason2. At least I hope this is what happens, in which case I would be interested in joining a top 5 bank's board. As an aside, New York tends to have much better martinis than San Francisco. I guess most people drink bourbon or rye whiskey these days so this point is moot. As an aside to this aside: Boston has a surprisingly good martini tastiness/per capita ratio.
2 I also picture all the board members wearing pin striped suits and. 3 Blockchains and smart contracts will still change our financial system outside of core cryptocurrencies, it will just take longer. RELATED POSTS.
One of the big myths in Silicon Valley is that should be equal. However, if you look at the most successful tech startups of the last 50 years, almost all of them had a dominant co-founder for most of the life of the company. This includes1:. Amazon. Apple. Steve Jobs famously split equity unequally versus Wozniak. While Zuck had multiple co-founders, the website used to be called ' and he had multiple times the equity and power of his co-founders.
Kevin Systrom as dominant founder. Robert Noyce for 7 years and then Gordon Moore for 12 years2. Scott Cook as dominant founder.
Reid Hoffman had multiple co-founders but was really dominant in terms of equity and control (despite hiring a CEO to take over pre-Jeff Weiner). Paul Allen stepped down after a few years leaving Bill Gates as dominant founder.
Larry Ellison as founder. Ben Silberman has driven the success of the company. Salesforce. Marc Benniof.
Travis Kalanick as primary force until recently. Jan as dominant founder and equity holder. The limited set of counterexamples with more equal co-founding partnerships includes Google (confounded a bit by Eric Schmidt being hired as CEO early in its life). Having an equal co-founding relationship is not impossible, just rare for the most successful companies. Harj Taggar has a great point on this - 'Another interesting way of thinking about this is reversion to the mean. Startups need to be outliers in many ways to be an outlying success, one such vector where I think this helps is in product decisions.
Any time you involve multiple stakeholders in these decisions (whether it's cofounders/customers/anyone else) you risk having your product revert to the mean (i.e. No one particularly hates it but no one loves it either). Having a product dictator is probably actually optimal for chasing outlying success.' Early Days Are Different In the early days of a company, it may only be two or three co-founders working together for an extended of period of time before you know what to build. If you have two co-founders and no employees, it may feel natural to always get to consensus and make decisions together.
Its just the two of you, and each of you has to be fully bought in due to the giant leap of faith you are taking. While some founding teams always have a clear CEO and decision maker, some do not. As you hire people and raising money, you will need to shift how you think of decision making.
Valley Tiger Pool Table
The two biggest is running out of money, and co-founder conflicts. Co-founder conflicts tend to arise when there is a lack of clarity on decision making, product vision, and overlapping founder roles.
For example, if more then one founder wants to be CEO, or make final decisions on product or other areas, conflict will be inevitable. Alternatively, if founders are willing to truly share power a startup may not be as aggressive due to the need to find compromises versus charge ahead. In these situations you may end up with a product or strategy designed by committee instead of making a single choice on what to build. Unequal co-founder relationships are a way to dampen future co-founder issues. By making it clear how decisions are made and who is in charge early, you decrease the likelihood of a founder blow up. This is separate from how you divide equity - ultimately you want to compensate someone for the tough times and many years of pain ahead that comes with starting a company. This does not mean you will always agree.
It is constructive for co-founders (and executives once you have them) to challenge the CEO and each other. There are bound to be lots of disagreements, and the non-CEO may often be right. As the CEO co-founder you need to pick your battles on when to make the final call and override everyone else. All else being equal, most specific decisions are often less important than actually making a decision. As the non-CEO co-founder, you need to understand the importance of falling in line and backing whatever decision is ultimately made. As an investor, a clear warning sign of future co-founder conflicts is when the founders say they are 'equal but own different areas'. 'I make all the calls on business, and my cofounder makes all the calls on engineering.'
But what if a business issue and a product or engineering issue overlap? A company needs a single person who is clearly in charge and can make a decision across all areas. The worst version of this is co-CEOs, which suggests an almost inevitable blow up. Cofounders may claim 'we make all decisions together, and have not fought before, so no need for a single decision maker.' This is a recipe for disaster.
Startups are hard and the right strategy is usually ambiguous. You can not defer organizational and decision making clarity for later. It is important to decide up front which co-founder is in charge (i.e. The CEO) and that person needs to be able to make decisions without being second guessed. Making decisions. This is not meant to argue against making important decisions with your co-founders.
You are working with them because they are smart, capable people. Their opinions are important and they may be right when you are wrong. They should own areas of the company and be able to make decisions on those areas without micromanagement. However, at some point there needs to be a clear owner who can make a final call if there is an impasse or lack of agreement. Once a decision is made, the non-CEO co-founders need to get behind the decision and make it successful. Equity splits As mentioned above many of the most successful companies of the last 20 years had unequal equity splits among co-founders (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) while some have had equal splits (e.g Google3, SnapChat). Equal equity does not need to be the default and in some of the most successful companies is not.
Sometimes this is counterintuitive - for example the CEO co-founder does not always get the most equity (e.g. Look at the ). The key is to be pragmatic and to think through the long term value each person brings to the table, the relative leverage each has, and investment made in different ways. Other perceived value One common point of co-founder jealousy and conflict is who gets to meet investors or talk to press. Usually this is the role of the CEO, and early on having multiple people involved in every conversation is not time efficient. As the company scales, there will be plenty of opportunities for multiple co-founders to have external exposure. As CEO, you should also watch out for your co-founders and make sure if this is important to them.
Thanks to for feedback on this post. 1 A number of private companies also do not have equal co-founding relationships or equity splits but since these companies are not yet public it is harder to talk openly about them. 2 An underreported phenomenon is the number of times one co-founder is replaced by another as CEO. This happened at Intel, Logitech, and other companies. 2 Google was in reality slightly unequal with Larry Page having slightly more equity when Google went public. It is unclear if this was due to share transfers by Sergey or if it was set up that way. RELATED POSTS.
Internet Crime Archives Serial killers tend to be white, heterosexual, males in their twenties and thirties who are loners with low self-esteem. Their methodical rampages are almost always sexually motivated. Their killings are usually part of an elaborate sexual fantasy that builds to a climax at the moment of their murderous outburst. Serial killers generally murder strangers with cooling off periods between each crime. Many enjoy cannibalism, necrophilia and keep trophy-like body parts as mementos of their work. Serial killers are sadistic in nature. Sometimes they like to return to grave sites and crime scenes to fantasize about previous kills.
Many killers like to insert themselves in the investigations of their crimes and some like to taunt the police with letters or carefully placed pieces of evidence at the crime scene. PLEASE GET YOURSELF A NEW BROWSER THAT READS FRAMES. CLICK HERE TO TO ENTER THE. BUT FIRST, PLEASE, PLEASE, GO AND GET YOURSELF A NEW BROWSER FROM OR.