What podcasts say about Becki DeGraw
Every statement, with the speaker, the exact quote and the moment it was said.
What Becki DeGraw has said on podcasts
26 statements · 12 positive · 9 negative · 1 mixed · 4 neutral
Companies can repurchase founders’ unvested shares when founders leave.
“If you were to leave the company before the shares are vested, the company has a right to repurchase the unvested portion of the shares.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 2:18
VC fundraising generally requires founder share vesting.
“If you're going to go out and seek any type of institutional funding, particularly from VCs, you're going to have to have vesting on your shares.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 2:55
Co-founder vesting can protect founders even without venture funding.
“even if it's just you and I and we're doing this venture and we, we're gonna, we're gonna backstop it. We're not, we're not gonna take that VC money because there's all the, the bells and whistles that go with it. There might be a reason I would argue to include vesting to protect amongst the founders themselves”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 3:36
Series B companies with revenue and metrics may avoid renegotiating founder vesting.
“if you're now a Series B company and, you know, you're— you've got real revenue, you've got real metrics, you're on your way, we're probably not going to have a conversation at all about your vesting.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 6:42
Multiple interested investors give founders leverage to secure better terms.
“this is exactly your best opportunity to get the best terms, um, is leverage, FOMO, right?”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 8:15
Founders should evaluate prospective board members, not just term-sheet valuation.
“there might be other things to consider too, right? In terms of Who is it? Like, if they're gonna take a board seat, most often in these early stages, that term sheet is gonna be coupled with, I want a board seat too. Who is it that's gonna sit on the board? How valuable are they going to be to you?”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 9:15
Founders should assess whether a fund can provide follow-on financing.
“What opportunities does that fund have to continue funding the company?”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 9:49
Advisor equity can use performance-based vesting instead of solely monthly vesting.
“You know, you can, you can add performance. Based vesting instead of just purely monthly vesting onto advisors.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 13:48
Ambiguous advisor milestones create cap-table uncertainty that investors dislike.
“You have any ambiguity whether the milestone has been met or not, you now have ambiguity on your cap table, which investors don't like.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 14:23
Simple time-based vesting is an alternative when advisor milestones are difficult to define.
“The other alternative, right, if you don't want to necessarily get into that, or you're having a hard time agreeing on it, or maybe it's a little more wishy-washy, in terms of I can't concretely say I want 2 introductions to these 5 folks or whatever it is, you can use simple time-based vesting.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 15:35
Advisor agreements typically include seven-to-fourteen-day termination notice periods.
“advisor agreements typically have anywhere from a 7 to 14 day notice period.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 16:20
Advisor equity generally continues vesting until the agreement is actively terminated.
“Unless there is an active termination, it just continues, which means they've been sitting out there. You think you're not using them, but they're still, they're still earning their equity.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 16:58
Founders should remove emotion from disputes with investors.
“I would say the first thing is take the emotion out of it.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 19:59
Lawyers should handle negotiations when founder emotions are too high.
“if the emotions are too high, it may be, okay, well, business person, you don't have the conversation. Just have the lawyers have the conversations.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on founder vesting, advisor equity & the 4-term-sheet playListen at 21:01
Previously built, tested, and validated technology accelerates starting a new venture.
“It's faster to start with that technology that has already been built and tested and validated.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 2:13
An excessively large parent stake can create problems with attracting new co-investors.
“if it gets to be too large, that's where you are going to have potential problems going forward in new co-investors.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 7:26
Large parent ownership stakes probably reduce spinout founders' motivation.
“If the old company— I'll call it parent or existing company— has an 80% stake or 50% stake in the company, and the founders have smaller stakes, they're probably less motivated.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 8:00
IP-licensing spinouts are less common because they create additional problems.
“I think less so, um, because it does create a lot of other problems.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 10:17
Use an IP-licensing structure only when it is the sole way to complete the deal.
“only in the situations where it's like, this is the only way I can get the deal done, would you kind of resort to that”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 10:23
A license arrangement can transfer IP and other assets between entities.
“certainly a license arrangement works.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 10:54
An existing company may require a license-back when transferred IP remains operationally necessary.
“I need you to give me a license back because I still need to use it.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 12:13
Spinout IP and customer information remain subject to confidentiality and existing-entity ownership restrictions.
“That means confidentiality restrictions apply with respect to it, the customer, any customer list, right? All of those things are owned by the existing entities.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 14:09
Founder-directors may face fiduciary-duty issues during separation from an existing entity.
“If you were a founder director of existing entity, there may be fiduciary duty issues that you want to make sure really clear where those come into play”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 14:39
Founders should document the separation before starting independent work on the new venture.
“get that papered before you just start go doing your own thing”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 15:16
Starting a new venture before separation may breach fiduciary duties and confidentiality provisions.
“that could actually be breach of fiduciary duty. It could be breach of your confidentiality provisions.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 15:21
Investors require a clean chain of title for spinout intellectual property.
“they want to see a clean chain of title to that IP.”
Open the episode · Becki DeGraw on spinouts, IP licensing & clean exits | Wilson Sonsini Startup Legal BasicsListen at 17:22
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.