Guest Lecturing on Founder Equity at Harvard Business School

Had an absolute blast guest lecturing this past week at Harvard Business School in the Entreprenuerial Finance course - top 3 things we covered:

1. The gap between founding and joining at early-stage startups.

This was a major topic of discussion. Obviously founders get more equity - and they should!

But the equity gap between them and hires 1-5 is more like a chasm. Great back and forth on fairness, different models of building teams, etc.

2. Mental models on SAFE investment

Flip from a focus on valuation cap to a emphasis on dilution and things get a little clearer.

Also touched on the anti-dilution built into post-money SAFEs and how that’s more impactful in a world where founders raise multiple rounds of capital before getting to priced equity.

3. The value of accelerators

No one size fits all! There has been an explosion of accelerator and incubator programs lately and they each offer different value for (typically) an equity stake.

Brand names like YC still make a good case for their ROI but it depends more on the what the founder needs vs what the accelerator offers.

Loved the discussions and grateful to many future founders (and funders) in these classes.

Shoutout to Ray Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli for the invitation and your generous hospitality! Next time in SF 🙏