Financing Terms: Most start-ups understand that growth will require a series of financings, and investors will expect financing terms which are “industry standard.” During my thirty years of practice, the terms of venture capital financing transactions have become more standard, with the rise of standard forms such as Series Seed, SAFE, and Nationa

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Of the billion-dollar companies in my dataset, about 60 percent had raised their first round of financing from tier-one (brand-name) venture capital firms like Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, or Accel, while less than 20 percent had raised from tier-one VCs in the random group, another significant difference observed among the two groups.

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Essentially, founders see themselves getting diluted during each subsequent financing. Although dilution is a typical part of each subsequent round of financing, they sometimes want to be awarded options for their role as employees. If they do, the founders should be prepared to raise the bar and tie additional options awards to improved performanc

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