August 30, 2014
Digital health startup handbook
Incorporation
- Startup Company Lawyer: What type of entity should I form? (Hint: a C Corp if you hope to raise VC funding)
- Startup Company Lawyer: What state should I incorporate in? (Hint: Delaware)
- Y Combinator model: Articles of Incorporation
- TechStars model: Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws
- Founder’s Workbench by Goodwin Procter
Founder’s Stock and General Stock Issues
- Fred Wilson: How dilution works
- Fred Wilson: Vesting
- Venture Hacks: Creating a cap table
- Startup Company Lawyer: The all-important 83(b) election for founder’s stock
Equity and Options for Employees
- Fred Wilson: Overview of equity and options for employees
- Fred Wilson: Stock options
- Fred Wilson: Option strike prices and 409a valuations
- Fred Wilson: How much equity/options to give employees
- Venture Hacks: Negotiating the size of the option pool in VC financings
- Joel Spolsky: Allocating founder and employee equity
Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors
- Venture Hacks: Everything you wanted to know about advisors part 1 and part 2
- AsktheVC: Board member and advisor board compensation
Angel/Seed Fundraising
- Fred Wilson: Raising from friends and family
- Venture Hacks: Setting a valuation in a seed round
- Todd Vernon: Types of angel investors
- Venture Hacks: Finding a lead investor part 1 and part 2
- Startup Company Lawyer: Should startups raise angel rounds using a convertible note or preferred stock?
- Mark Suster: Angel funding advice
- Mark Suster: Should you take seed money from a large VC?
- Startup Laywer: Only raise from accredited investors
Open Source Angel/Seed Fundraising Documents
Note that all these documents are for priced rounds; many startups now raise angel rounds through convertible notes.
Convertible Notes
- Fred Wilson: Overview of convertible debt
- Startup Lawyer: How convertible debt works
- Startup Company Lawyer: Interest rate on convertible notes
- Startup Lawyer: The convertible note discount price cap
- Martin Kleppman: Valuation cap on convertible notes explained
Venture Financing Mechanics
- Fred Wilson: Introduction to preferred stock
- Startup Company Lawyer: Sample VC term sheet
- Brad Feld: Series explaining key terms in VC term sheets
- WSGR Term sheet generator
Venture Financing Advice
- Venture Hacks: Don’t send NDAs or full business plans
- Ventures Hacks: Creating competition to get better terms
General Fundraising Advice
Pitching
- Venture Hacks: The “elevator pitch” for emails
- Sequioia Capital: Pitch deck contents
- Dave McClure: How to pitch a VC
- The Mint.com pitch deck
- Guy Kawasaki: How to deliver a great pitch
Accounting and Budgeting
- Fred Wilson: The profit and loss statement
- AsktheVC: Do VC’s require audited financials?
- Glenn Kelman: Startup budgeting
- Jason Calacanis: How to save money running a startup
Hiring
- Venture Hacks: How employees should evaluate job offers part 1 and part 2
- Venture Hacks: An employee offer letter
- AsktheVC: Benchmarks for employee/founder compensation
- Startup Company Lawyer: Benchmarks for employee compensation
Have additional great resources that should be added to this list? Email hello@rockhealth.org with suggestions.