Secrets of Sand Hill Road

When a company is doing well in all respects—employee hiring and development, customer goals, product goals, financing goals—it’s easy to retain and motivate employees. After all, who doesn’t love being on a winning team where the growth of the company can translate into personal career growth for the employees?

a strange way, sometimes familiarity can breed contempt—and conversely, the distance from the problem that comes from having a completely different professional background might actually make one a better founder.

In a single-trigger provision, the founder’s stock is accelerated upon the closing of an M&A event; in a double trigger, both the closing of the deal and the acquirer’s decision not to retain the founder in the new entity are required for acceleration.

“egomaniacal.”

customers to buy the product, partners to help distribute the product, and, eventually, other VCs to fund the business beyond the initial round of financing. Will the founder be able to explain her vision in a way that causes others to want to join her on this mission? And will she walk through walls when the going gets tough—which it inevitably wi

employees are likely to compare it to other companies that have raised money recently, in many cases independent of whether those companies are relevant benchmarks.

higher growth rate

most companies have a right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) agreement. The ROFR agreement means that if someone (in this case, a cofounder) is trying to sell her stock, the company has a right to match any offers received and effect the purchase.

LPs don’t just invest in VCs; they construct a diversified portfolio around a defined asset allocation to try to achieve their return goals, but within a defined volatility (or risk) framework.