Jason and I are planning to finish strong with some serious stuff in our term sheet series, but we figured we’d put one more term in that has us sniggling whenever we see it (a “sniggle” is a combination “sneer-giggle” – sort of like how I reacted to Kidman / Ferrell in Bewitched last night). The last sniggle term is as follows:

“Initial Public Offering Shares Purchase:  In the event that the Company shall consummate a Qualified IPO, the Company shall use its best efforts to cause the managing underwriter or underwriters of such IPO to offer to [investors] the right to purchase at least (5%) of any shares issued under a “friends and family” or “directed shares” program in connection with such Qualified IPO. Notwithstanding the foregoing, all action taken pursuant to this Section shall be made in accordance with all federal and state securities laws, including, without limitation, Rule 134 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and all applicable rules and regulations promulgated by the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. and other such self-regulating organizations.”

We firmly put this in the “nice problem to have” category.  This term really blossomed in the late 1990’s when anything that was VC funded was positioned as a company that would shortly go public. However, most investment bankers will push back on this term if the IPO is going to be a success as they want to get stock into the hands institutional investors (e.g. “their clients”).  If the VCs get this push back, they are usually so giddy with joy that the company is going public that they don’t argue with the bankers.  Ironically, if the VC doesn’t get this push back (or even worse, get a call near the end of the IPO road show) where the bankers are asking the VC to buy shares in the offering, the VC usually panics (because it means it’s no longer a hot deal) and does whatever he can not to have to buy into the offering.

Sniggle.  Our recommendation – don’t worry about this one or spend lawyer time on it. 

I’m going to keep tonight’s term sheet post short and sweet, especially since I’m still reeling from the horrifyingly bad War of the World movie I just saw.  Jason and I are almost done with the term sheet series (yeah, we know we keep promising that) but – like the Spielberg tragicomedy I just watched, it’s not over until it’s over (sorry – that cliche just snuck its way in – I was helpless against it – the aliens made me do it.)

Occasionally a term sheet will have – buried near the back – a short clause concerning “founders activities.”  It usually looks something like:

“Founders Activities:  Each of the Founders shall devote 100% of his professional time to the Company.  Any other professional activities will require the approval of the Board of Directors.”

This should be no surprise to a founder that your friendly neighborhood VC wants you to be spending 100% (actually 120%) of your time and attention on your company.  If this paragraph sneaks its way into the term sheet, the VC has either been recently burned or is suspicious and / or concerned that one or more of the founders may be working on something besides the company in question. 

Of course, this is a classic no-win situation for a founder.  If you are actually working on something else at the same time and don’t disclose it, you are violating the terms of the agreement (and – breaching trust before you get started – not a good thing as it’ll eventually come to light.)  If you do disclose it – or push back on this clause (hence signaling that you are working on something else), you’ll reinforce the concern that the VC has.  So – tread carefully here.  Our recommendation – unless of course you are working on something else – is simply to agree to this (why wouldn’t you, unless you don’t believe in the thing you are asking the VC to fund?)

In situations where I’ve worked with a founder that already has other obligations or commitments, I’ve always appreciated him being up front with me early in the process.  I’ve usually been able to work these situations out in a way that causes everyone to be happy and – in the cases where I can’t get there – I’m glad that the issue came up early so that I didn’t waste my time or the enterpreneurs’ time.

While there are situations where VCs get comfortable with entrepreneurs working on multiple companies simultaneously (usually with very experienced entrepreneurs or in situations where the VC and the entrepreneur have worked together in the past), they are the exception, not the norm.

I had good intentions earlier this week to try to crank out the balance of the term sheet series, but it turned into a busy week.  Since I’m still muddling through the set of terms that either don’t matter much and/or are hard to negotiate away (e.g. chose you battles wisely), I didn’t expect anyone would be waiting on the edge of their seats for these.  However, for completeness, it’s worth going through the stuff that shows up on the last few pages of a standard VC term sheet.  Jason and I aren’t quite done, but with this post, we are one (tedious) step closer.

Almost every term sheet we’ve ever seen has a “Restrictions on Sales” clause in it that looks something like:

“Restrictions on Sales:  The Company’s Bylaws shall contain a right of first refusal on all transfers of Common Stock, subject to normal exceptions. If the Company elects not to exercise its right, the Company shall assign its right to the Investors.”

Management / founders rarely argue against this as it helps control the shareholder base of the company which usually benefits all the existing shareholders (except possibly the one who wants to bail out of their private stock.)  However, we’ve found that the lawyers will often spend time arguing how to implement this particular clause.  Some lawyers feel that putting this provision in the bylaws is the wrong way to go and prefer to include such a provision in each of the company’s option agreements, plans and stock sales.  Personally, we find it much easier to include in the bylaws. 

Next up is the ubiquitous proprietary information and inventions agreement clause. 

“Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement:  Each current and former officer, employee and consultant of the Company shall enter into an acceptable proprietary information and inventions agreement.”

This paragraph benefits both the company and investors and is simply a mechanism that investors use to get the company to  legally stand behind the representation that it owns its intellectual property.  Many pre-Series A companies have issues surrounding this, especially if the company hasn’t had great legal representation prior to its first venture round.  We’ve also run into plenty of situations (including several of ours – oops!) where companies are loose about this between financings and – while a financing is a good time to clean this up – it’s often annoying to previously hired employees who are now told “hey – you need to sign this since we need it for the venture financing.”  It’s even more important in the sale of a company, as the buyer will always insist on clear ownership of the IP.  Our best advice here is that companies should build these agreements into their hiring process from the very beginning (with the advice from a good law firm) so that there are never any issues around this, as VCs will always insist on it.

Finally, a co-sale agreement is pretty standard fare as well.

“Co-Sale Agreement:  The shares of the Company’s securities held by the Founders shall be made subject to a co-sale agreement (with certain reasonable exceptions) with the Investors such that the Founders may not sell, transfer or exchange their stock unless each Investor has an opportunity to participate in the sale on a pro-rata basis.  This right of co-sale shall not apply to and shall terminate upon a Qualified IPO.”

If you are a founder, you are probably asking why we did not include the co-sale section in the “really matter section.”  The chance of keeping this provision out of a financing is close to zero, so we don’t think it’s worth the battle to fight it.  Notice that this only matters while the company is private – if the company goes public, this clause no longer applies.

Jason and I are feeling the need for closure on our term sheet series as we’ve started gearing up on our next series (M&A).  So – we’re going to knock out the balance of the standard term sheet terms this week.  We’re still in the “terms that don’t matter much zone” so we’re including Voting Rights and Employee Pool for completeness.

“Voting Rights: The Series A Preferred will vote together with the Common Stock and not as a separate class except as specifically provided herein or as otherwise required by law.  The Common Stock may be increased or decreased by the vote of holders of a majority of the Common Stock and Series A Preferred voting together on an as if converted basis, and without a separate class vote.  Each share of Series A Preferred shall have a number of votes equal to the number of shares of Common Stock then issuable upon conversion of such share of Series A Preferred.”

Most of the time voting rights are simply an “FYI” section as all the heavy rights are contained in other sections such as the protective provisions.

“Employee Pool: Prior to the Closing, the Company will reserve shares of its Common Stock so that __% of its fully diluted capital stock following the issuance of its Series A Preferred is available for future issuances to directors, officers, employees and consultants.  The term “Employee Pool” shall include both shares reserved for issuance as stated above, as well as current options outstanding, which aggregate amount is approximately __% of the Company’s fully diluted capital stock following the issuance of its Series A Preferred.” 

The employee pool section is a separate section in order to clarify the capital structure and specifically call out the percentage of the company that will be allocated to the option pool associated with the financing.  Since a cap table is almost always included with the term sheet, this section is redundant, but exists so there is no confusion about the size of the option pool.

Today’s “term that doesn’t matter much” from our term sheet series is the Right of First Refusal. When we say “it doesn’t matter much”, we really mean “don’t bother trying to negotiate it away – the VCs will insist on it.” Following is the standard language:

“Right of First Refusal: Investors who purchase at least (____) shares of Series A Preferred (a “Major Investor”) shall have the right in the event the Company proposes to offer equity securities to any person (other than the shares (i) reserved as employee shares described under “Employee Pool” below, (ii) shares issued for consideration other than cash pursuant to a merger, consolidation, acquisition, or similar business combination approved by the Board; (iii) shares issued pursuant to any equipment loan or leasing arrangement, real property leasing arrangement or debt financing from a bank or similar financial institution approved by the Board; and (iv) shares with respect to which the holders of a majority of the outstanding Series A Preferred waive their right of first refusal) to purchase [X times] their pro rata portion of such shares. Any securities not subscribed for by an eligible Investor may be reallocated among the other eligible Investors. Such right of first refusal will terminate upon a Qualified IPO. For purposes of this right of first refusal, an Investor’s pro rata right shall be equal to the ratio of (a) the number of shares of common stock (including all shares of common stock issuable or issued upon the conversion of convertible securities and assuming the exercise of all outstanding warrants and options) held by such Investor immediately prior to the issuance of such equity securities to (b) the total number of share of common stock outstanding (including all shares of common stock issuable or issued upon the conversion of convertible securities and assuming the exercise of all outstanding warrants and options) immediately prior to the issuance of such equity securities.”

There are two things to pay attention to in this term that can be negotiated. First, the share threshold that defines a “Major Investor” can be defined. It’s often convenient – especially if you have a large number of small investors – not to have to give this right to them. However, since in future rounds, you are typically interested in getting as much participation as you can, it’s not worth struggling with this too much.

A more important thing to look for is to see if there is a a multiple on the purchase rights (e.g. the “X times” listed above). This is an excessive ask – especially early in the financing life cycle of a company – and can almost always be negotiated to 1x.

As with “other terms that don’t matter much”, you shouldn’t let your lawyer over engineer these. If you feel the need to negotiate, focus on the share threshold and the multiple on the purchase rights.

When Jason and I last wrote about term sheets, Jack was still trying to save the world (surprise – he did) and we dealt with a meaty and important issue – vesting.  For completeness (and because all good “series” deserve to be finished off), we’re tackling the terms that rarely matter in the next couple of posts.  Today we’re starting with Information Rights and Registration Rights.

You might ask, “If these terms rarely matter, why bother?” Well – you’ll end up having to deal with them in a VC term sheet, so you might as well (a) be exposed to them and (b) hear that they don’t matter much. Of course, from a VC perspective, “doesn’t matter much” means “Mr. Entrepreneur, please don’t pay much attention to these terms – just accept them as is.” Specifically, if one of these terms is being hotly negotiated by an investor or company, that time (and lawyer money) is most likely being wasted.

First up is Information Rights – the typical clause follows:

“Information Rights: So long as an Investor continues to hold shares of Series A Preferred or Common Stock issued upon conversion of the Series A Preferred, the Company shall deliver to the Investor the Company’s annual budget, as well as audited annual and unaudited quarterly financial statements. Furthermore, as soon as reasonably possible, the Company shall furnish a report to each Investor comparing each annual budget to such financial statements. Each Investor shall also be entitled to standard inspection and visitation rights. These provisions shall terminate upon a Qualified IPO.”

Information rights are generally something companies are stuck with in order to get investment capital. The only variation one sees is putting a threshold on the number of shares held (some finite number vs. “any”) for investors to continue to enjoy these rights.

Registration Rights are more tedious and tend to take up a page or more of the term sheet.  The typical clause(s) follows:

“Registration Rights: Demand Rights: If Investors holding more than 50% of the outstanding shares of Series A Preferred, including Common Stock issued on conversion of Series A Preferred (“Registrable Securities”), or a lesser percentage if the anticipated aggregate offering price to the public is not less than $5,000,000, request that the Company file a Registration Statement, the Company will use its best efforts to cause such shares to be registered; provided, however, that the Company shall not be obligated to effect any such registration prior to the [third] anniversary of the Closing. The Company shall have the right to delay such registration under certain circumstances for one period not in excess of ninety (90) days in any twelve (12) month period.

Other Provisions: Other provisions shall be contained in the Investor Rights Agreement with respect to registration rights as are reasonable, including cross-indemnification, the period of time in which the Registration Statement shall be kept effective, and underwriting arrangements. The Company shall not require the opinion of Investor’s counsel before authorizing the transfer of stock or the removal of Rule 144 legends for routine sales under Rule 144 or for distribution to partners or members of Investors.”

Registration rights are also something the company will have to offer to investors. What is most interesting about this section is that lawyers seem genetically incapable of leaving this section untouched and always end up “negotiating something.” Perhaps because this provision is so long in length, they feel the need to keep their pens warm while reading. We find it humorous (so long as we aren’t the ones paying the legal fees), because in the end, the modifications are generally innocuous and besides, if you ever get to the point where registration rights come into play (e.g. an IPO), the investment bankers of the company are going to have a major hand in deciding how the deal is going to be structured, regardless of the contract the company entered into years before when it did an early private financing.

When Jason and I last wrote on the mythical term sheet, we were working our way through the terms that “can matter.” The last one on our list is vesting, and we approach it with one eyebrow raised understanding the impact of this term is crucial for all founders of an early stage company.

While vesting is a simple concept, it can have profound and unexpected implications. Typically, stock and options will vest over four years – which means that you have to be around for four years to own all of your stock or options (for the rest of this post, I’ll simply refer to the equity as “stock” although exactly the same logic applies to options.) If you leave the company earlier than the four year period, the vesting formula applies and you only get a percentage of your stock. As a result, many entrepreneurs view vesting as a way for VCs to “control them, their involvement, and their ownership in a company” which, while it can be true, is only a part of the story.

A typical stock vesting clause looks as follows:

Stock Vesting: All stock and stock equivalents issued after the Closing to employees, directors, consultants and other service providers will be subject to vesting provisions below unless different vesting is approved by the majority (including at least one director designated by the Investors) consent of the Board of Directors (the “Required Approval”): 25% to vest at the end of the first year following such issuance, with the remaining 75% to vest monthly over the next three years. The repurchase option shall provide that upon termination of the employment of the shareholder, with or without cause, the Company or its assignee (to the extent permissible under applicable securities law qualification) retains the option to repurchase at the lower of cost or the current fair market value any unvested shares held by such shareholder. Any issuance of shares in excess of the Employee Pool not approved by the Required Approval will be a dilutive event requiring adjustment of the conversion price as provided above and will be subject to the Investors’ first offer rights.

The outstanding Common Stock currently held by _________ and ___________ (the “Founders”) will be subject to similar vesting terms provided that the Founders shall be credited with [one year] of vesting as of the Closing, with their remaining unvested shares to vest monthly over three years.

Industry standard vesting for early stage companies is a one year cliff and monthly thereafter for a total of 4 years. This means that if you leave before the first year is up, you don’t vest any of your stock. After a year, you have vested 25% (that’s the “cliff”). Then – you begin vesting monthly (or quarterly, or annually) over the remaining period. So – if you have a monthly vest with a one year cliff and you leave the company after 18 months, you’ll have vested 37.25% of your stock.

Often, founders will get somewhat different vesting provisions than the balance of the employee base. A common term is the second paragraph above, where the founders receive one year of vesting credit at the closing and then vest the balance of their stock over the remaining 36 months. This type of vesting arrangement is typical in cases where the founders have started the company a year or more earlier then the VC investment and want to get some credit for existing time served.

Unvested stock typically “disappears into the ether” when someone leaves the company. The equity doesn’t get reallocated – rather it gets “reabsorbed” – and everyone (VCs, stock, and option holders) all benefit ratably from the increase in ownership (or – more literally – the reverse dilution.”) In the case of founders stock, the unvested stuff just vanishes. In the case of unvested employee options, it usually goes back into the option pool to be reissued to future employees.

A key component of vesting is defining what happens (if anything) to vesting schedules upon a merger. “Single trigger” acceleration refers to automatic accelerated vesting upon a merger. “Double trigger” refers to two events needing to take place before accelerated vesting (e.g., a merger plus the act of being fired by the acquiring company.) Double trigger is much more common than single trigger. Acceleration on change of control is often a contentious point of negotiation between founders and VCs, as the founders will want to “get all their stock in a transaction – hey, we earned it!” and VCs will want to minimize the impact of the outstanding equity on their share of the purchase price. Most acquires will want there to be some forward looking incentive for founders, management, and employees, so they usually either prefer some unvested equity (to help incent folks to stick around for a period of time post acquisition) or they’ll include a separate management retention incentive as part of the deal value, which comes off the top, reducing the consideration that gets allocated to the equity ownership in the company. This often frustrates VCs (yeah – I hear you chuckling “haha – so what?”) since it puts them at cross-purposes with management in the M&A negotiation (everyone should be negotiating to maximize the value for all shareholders, not just specifically for themselves.) Although the actual legal language is not very interesting, it is included below.

In the event of a merger, consolidation, sale of assets or other change of control of the Company and should an Employee be terminated without cause within one year after such event, such person shall be entitled to [one year] of additional vesting. Other than the foregoing, there shall be no accelerated vesting in any event.”

Structuring acceleration on change of control terms used to be a huge deal in the 1990’s when “pooling of interests” was an accepted form of accounting treatment as there were significant constraints on any modifications to vesting agreements. Pooling was abolished in early 2000 and – under purchase accounting – there is no meaningful accounting impact in a merger of changing the vesting arrangements (including accelerating vesting). As a result, we usually recommend a balanced approach to acceleration (double trigger, one year acceleration) and recognize that in an M&A transaction, this will often be negotiated by all parties. Recognize that many VCs have a distinct point of view on this (e.g. some folks will NEVER do a deal with single trigger acceleration; some folks don’t care one way or the other) – make sure you are not negotiating against and “point of principle” on this one as VCs will often say “that’s how it is an we won’t do anything different.”

Recognize that vesting works for the founders as well as the VCs. I’ve been involved in a number of situations where one or more founders didn’t work out and the other founders wanted them to leave the company. If there had been no vesting provisions, the person who didn’t make it would have walked away with all their stock and the remaining founders would have had no differential ownership going forward. By vesting each founder, there is a clear incentive to work your hardest and participate constructively in the team, beyond the elusive founders “moral imperative.” Obviously, the same rule applies to employees – since equity is compensation and should be earned over time, vesting is the mechanism to insure the equity is earned over time.

Of course, time has a huge impact on the relevancy of vesting. In the late 1990’s, when companies often reached an exit event within two years of being founded, the vesting provisions – especially acceleration clauses – mattered a huge amount to the founders. Today – as we are back in a normal market where the typical gestation period of an early stage company is five to seven years, most people (especially founders and early employees) that stay with a company will be fully (or mostly) vested at the time of an exit event.

While it’s easy to set vesting up as a contentious issue between founders and VCs, we recommend the founding entrepreneurs view vesting as an overall “alignment tool” – for themselves, their co-founders, early employees, and future employees. Anyone who has experienced an unfair vesting situation will have strong feelings about it – we believe fairness, a balanced approach, and consistency is the key to making vesting provisions work long term in a company.

As I watched 24 last night, I kept thinking to myself “Why the fuck does Jack have his cell phone ringer on – hasn’t he ever heard of vibrate?” immediately after his cell phone rang but right before he got shot at because the bad guys now knew where he was. I had a parallel thought this morning – “Why do we make all this term sheet stuff so long, verbose, and tedious.” The answer – word processers. If we had to type all this crap on a typewriter (or write it out by hand) it’d be a lot shorter. In both cases, technology is working against us. But – then again, we wouldn’t have blogs (and I can hear a few of you (and I know who you are) saying “and that would be a bad thing because?”)

While there is a lot to negotiate in a term sheet (as you can see from the series of posts on term sheets that Jason and I have written), a term sheet is simply a step on the way to an actual deal. Term sheets are often either non-binding (or mostly non-binding), and most investors will load them up with conditions precedent to financing. Entrepreneurs glance over these – usually because they are in the back sections of the term sheet and are typically pretty innocuous, but they occasionally have additional “back door outs” for the investor that the entrepreneur should watch out for, if only to better understand the current mindset of the investor proposing the investment.

A typical conditions precedent to financing clause looks as follows:

“Conditions Precedent to Financing: Except for the provisions contained herein entitled “Legal Fees and Expenses”, “No Shop Agreement”, and “Governing Law” which are explicitly agreed by the Investors and the Company to be binding upon execution of this term sheet, this summary of terms is not intended as a legally binding commitment by the Investors, and any obligation on the part of the Investors is subject to the following conditions precedent: 1. Completion of legal documentation satisfactory to the prospective Investors; 2. Satisfactory completion of due diligence by the prospective Investors; 3. Delivery of a customary management rights letter to Investors; and 4. Submission of detailed budget for the following twelve months, acceptable to Investors.”

Notice that the investor will try to make a few things binding – specifically (a) that his legal fees get paid whether or not a deal happens, (b) that the company can’t shop the deal once the term sheet is signed, and (c) that the governing law be set to a specific domicile – while explicitly stating “there are a bunch things that still have to happen before this deal is done and I can back out for any reason.”

There are a few conditions to watch out for since they usually signal something non-obvious on the part of the investor. They are:

There are plenty of other wacky conditionals – if you can dream it, it has probably been done. Just make sure to look carefully at this paragraph and remember that just because you’ve signed a term sheet, you don’t have a deal.

While lots of VCs posture during term sheet negotiations by saying “that is non-negotiable”, terms rarely are (as you’ve likely inferred from previous posts on term sheets be me and Jason.) Occasionally, a term will actually be non-negotiable. In all the VC deals we’ve ever seen, the preferred has the right – at any time – to convert its stake into common. Following is the standard language:

“Conversion: The holders of the Series A Preferred shall have the right to convert the Series A Preferred, at any time, into shares of Common Stock. The initial conversion rate shall be 1:1, subject to adjustment as provided below.”

This allows the buyer of preferred to convert to common should he determine on a liquidation that he is better off getting paid on a pro rata common basis rather than accepting the liquidation preference and participating amount. It can also be used in certain extreme circumstances whereby the preferred wants to control a vote of the common on a certain issue. Do note, however, that once converted, there is no provision for “re-converting” back to preferred.

A more interesting term is the automatic conversion, especially since it has several components that are negotiable.

“Automatic Conversion: All of the Series A Preferred shall be automatically converted into Common Stock, at the then applicable conversion price, upon the closing of a firmly underwritten public offering of shares of Common Stock of the Company at a per share price not less than [three] times the Original Purchase Price (as adjusted for stock splits, dividends and the like) per share and for a total offering of not less than [$15] million (before deduction of underwriters commissions and expenses) (a “Qualified IPO”). All, or a portion of, each share of the Series A Preferred shall be automatically converted into Common Stock, at the then applicable conversion price in the event that the holders of at least a majority of the outstanding Series A Preferred consent to such conversion.”

In an IPO of a venture-backed company, the investment bankers will want to see everyone convert into common stock at the time of the IPO (it is extremely rare for a venture backed company to go public with multiple classes of stock – it happens – but it’s rare). The thresholds of the automatic conversion are critical to negotiate – as the entrepreneur; you want them lower to insure more flexibility while your investors will want them higher to give them more control over the timing and terms of an IPO.

Regardless of the actual thresholds, one thing of crucial importance is to never allow investors to negotiate different automatic conversion terms for different series of preferred stock. There are many horror stories of companies on the brink of going public and having one class of preferred stockholders that have a threshold above what the proposed offering would consummate and therefore these stockholders have an effective veto right on the offering. We strongly recommend that – at each financing – you equalize the automatic conversion threshold among all series of stock.