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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

If you are avid followers of the TV series 24 (as Jason and I are), you’ll recognize that the next item in our term sheet series – Redemption at Option of Investors – has similar characteristics to the regular exchange Jack has with CTU:  CTU Director (any of them – Driscoll, Tony, Ryan, George, Michelle): […]

As our term sheet series unfolds (almost as exciting as 24, eh? – if you’ve been reading the last few days I bet you figured out that I recently had a 7 hour plane ride with a laptop battery that was in pretty good shape) we now shift gears from nuclear meltdown situations (also known […]

There’s nothing like a solid week of vacation with no phone, email, or blogs to get the writing juices rolling again. Of course, now that I’m through my email, I only have 8200 blog posts to read to catch up – thank god for jet lag – wait, what am I saying? In our term sheet […]