This is a great idea. I'd be willing to do this with my keto cereal companies if there was a pool of other promising food startups.
FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
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Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#12Doesn't this de-incentivize founders since they're giving up their most valuable asset, their equity?
Only 1-5% of founder's shares are contributed. 95% or more retained. It's insurance; not a plan B.
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#13I have questions buzzing through my head. How does this work? If it's this good, why aren't VC's already doing this amongst portfolio founders? How do you catch companies founded at the same time with close valuations to do "shared pools" equitably given all parameters?
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Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#14> Apply to a pool in your startup category, within 3 months of the valuation event.
Most "valuation events" for startups are seed or series X fundraisers, no? So how could founders who bootstrap participate in this, if at all?
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#15How do you overcome the adverse selection problem? ie. only founders who know their startups are duds want to diversify their holdings?
1) We screen companies based on their quality, ex: a round raised within the last 3-6 months.
2) Founders get to interact with participating companies and rank them based on their insight. Only companies that are highly ranked get into a pool. A pool is also dynamic and founders in the pool can invite new startups based on their interactions.
Overall, this is based on the concept that founders are often good judges of other founders/startups. And pool is more than just for risk diversification, they get a community of founders ready to help your startup because they are vested in it.
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#16It’s a reasonable idea, but would make a lot more sense for employees. While outside forces impact companies, founders and executives are responsible for outcomes.
Employees have little individual power to impact strategy and are more likely the victims of poor management decisions.
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#17Good timing. as a founder I could use something like this more than ever
Which aspect attracts you most?
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#18Interesting. Does anyone know of anything else like this out there?
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#19> Apply to a pool in your startup category, within 3 months of the valuation event. Most "valuation events" for startups are seed or series X fundraisers, no? So how could founders who bootstrap participate in this, if at all?
We are using this as a screening for adverse selection, but founders who are bootstrapped can also apply if they have proven traction (we have a few stellar startups who were highly ranked but never raised money)
Re: FounderPool: A community for founders to share risk and diversify their equity
#20Interesting. Does anyone know of anything else like this out there?
None that I found so far.