If you’re negotiating or going to be negotiating a termsheet, this one’s for you! Ted Wang, a partner with the Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West and a leading intellectual property  attorney, talks termsheets with Reena Jadhav of IvyBrain. Ted reveals VC motivations during negotiations, spills the top 5 reasons negotiations fall apart, shares his counter-intuitive philosophy on founder vesting, offers a key clause founders can include to counter blocking rights, and throws in a tip for stock option pool at the end. My favorite part of the conversation — his response to how founders can maximize the valuation of their company!

Why do negotiations fail?

1. Valuation

2. Board of directors

3. Liquidation preferences

4. Blocking rights

5. Radioactive items of dishonesty, over negotiating, and iterating on small points. 

Tags: Experts, Banking, Funding, Legal, Uncategorized by reena
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Guest expert and veteran recruiter Max Shapiro, CEO PeopleConnect Staffing, answered IvyBrain questions on recruiting the right team on a shoestring budget. I urge all young entrepreneurs to get a cup of coffee, turn off the Blackberry and listen to his insights. These simple words of experience could mean the difference between success and failure!

Here are some sample questions:

What’s an “A player” and is there an objective definition?

It’s about the attitude, the personality but mostly its about their track record. Don’t listen to what they say but what they’ve done! Prior startup experience is critical.

What’s a shoestring recruiting budget? What are top executive compensation ranges these days?

“Employees without paychecks” program offered by PeopleConnect Staffing where experienced executives will join without pay for 3 months or more and even lead fundraising to help cash-strapped startups.

Some of the other questions answered include “what is critical in hiring right, what are the top reasons recruiting fails, how do you reconcile who the board wants to hire with who the founders want to hire.” Max requires all candidates to take a 20 minute online personality test which you can try out here. His parting tip for entrepreneurs is to do extended references, which he describes in detail, even if you love your candidate. Sage advice that could mean the difference between success and failure!

Tags: Experts, Recruiting, Uncategorized by reena
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I’ve always thought of my banker as the guy referred to me by the VC funding us. It looks like the new banker is more than a piggy bank and fully on the Web2.0 bandwagon. They are offering unprecedented degree of strategic services, networking, community, and access. I hear they’re now pitching your business for fundraising, recruiting, driving buzz and more! Tune in to the show March 25th to find out what your banker needs to deliver. Post your questions for the show ahead of time. Our guest expert for this show is Ed Lambert.

Ed Lambert is a Senior Vice President of Bridge Bank. Ed is a key partner and board member of many Valley Business Organizations. A 27-year Tech/Life Sciences banking veteran, Ed began his career with Bank of America and worked in the Tech Groups of Comerica Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Imperial Bank. Ed founded the Tech Practice for Coast Business Credit, building an asset-based Tech portfolio to $20-30MM in annual commitments. Ed is a graduate of Santa Clara University with an MBA, and holds a BA in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

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Tags: Experts, Banking, Uncategorized by reena
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Dr. Roe Gallo shares her burnout test and tells Reena Jadhav of IvyBrain that accumulation of stress can not only kill your performance, it can actually kill you!

Take the test to find out if you have burnout by answering questions such as “Do you have anger at those making demands on you?” and “Are you being excessively negative, pessimistic, and irritable?”

Answer ”yes” to more than three questions and you are well on your way to serious issues that impact physical health. She also gives specific actionable steps on how to combat burnout such as “make a 5 minute daily appointment with yourself and think about the happiest times in your life or sipping a Mojito on a beach”.

Dr. Gallo offers companies a Peak Performance program where she puts her executive team on a program that includes mental, physical and spiritual health. For questions on her peak performance program you can email Dr. Gallo at roe@roegallo.com    

Send in your questions for the next IvyBrain show on health to reena@ivybrain.com. 

Tags: Executive Coaching, Uncategorized by reena
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You’ve closed the financing round, got your first decent night zzzzs, now it’s time to hire that “A team”.  But aren’t all “A players” working for Google now? Max Shapiro, founder and CEO of PeopleConnect, will tell us where to find top recruits, how to identify them, what it takes to bring them on board.  His unique blend of experience, creativity and persistence has made it possible for many startups and established companies to add key members to their teams. Post Your Questions now for Max and tune in on March 7th for the answers. [Read more →]

Tags: Experts, Recruiting by reena
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One of the mysteries of launching a company (to techies anyway) is the formula for buzz. There seems to be voodoo involved unless you have an expert on your team who knows what they are doing. We have PR guru Kathy Johnson who cofounded and spearheaded launch of Blinkx to provide secret insights on getting great buzz. Post Your Questions now for the March 19th segment.

Kathy’s pioneering ventures include: Firefly, where she developed the international channel and distribution strategy before it was acquired by Microsoft; the introduction of online loyalty, where Kathy was pivotal in the creation of international strategies for companies including Bertelsmann, Vivendi-Universal, BT and Dentsu; and most recently, co-founded Blinkx, the world’s first video search engine.

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Tags: Experts, Marketing, Uncategorized by reena
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