FounderPool

De-Risking startup founders by pooling equity

18 followers

De-Risking startup founders by pooling equity

18 followers

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Pool your startup equity with inspiring, VC-backed founders vested in your success. Diversify your financial risk and increase your odds of an exit. FounderPool is your go-to resource for Investor Intros, Hiring Referrals, Growth Advice, Partnerships & more.

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Fantasy Startup

This is a really interesting idea. As a serial Founder, I've invested in several other startups for this very reason. I think the greatest impediment is the fact that not all startups are equal in the eyes of Founders. For example, would Midwest Founders be able to participate in a pool alongside SF-Based Founders (assuming third party fundings for all companies)? It's foreseeable that Founders that have zombied out "or" know that they're probably not going to make it would want to contribute as much stock as possible(?). So, perhaps, the stock must come in within "so many days" of a qualified financing.

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@gerryhays1 Gerry, yes. We index the price to the most recent round of funding, and it has to be within a certain time period. For example you get to rank the top 10 companies you want to share equity with (based on team, traction, product, market, personal interaction with founder etc etc) and so will every other founder. Pool construction takes into account all rankings and does stable matching algorithmically (gale-shapley). Peer rankings address the adverse selection problem that you allude to. We do the screening and diligence, but we believe that founders have a fantastic ability to sniff out dying startups.

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6yr ago

StoreMapper

From the FAQ "Every founder in a pool allocates equity that amounts to the same dollar value to the pool, however, the amount of shares maybe different based on the valuation and number of outstanding shares" ... does this mean to participate the companies need to have a recent priced round? If not, are there other ways you determine that everybody is contributing "the same dollar amount" of equity?

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@tylertringas Yes, either a 409A or price from the funding round within the last 3 months is used for pricing.

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6yr ago

?makers Startups, 70% won’t live to see their 10th birthday. Should show how the 70% is decreasing towards success because of FounderPool investment, how many pivot based on FounderPool invest, and how many acquisitions happen tracing back to FounderPool invest If 70% of startups invest in FounderPool how many of them live past 10yr ROI? Only time will tell

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@mrdignitty Great questions all. We will get the data as the process goes on

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6yr ago

1)congrats 2) i thought of this idea 10 years ago and so this means george and chandra are doing something genius here and will succeed 3) Ive done insurance litigation in the 'reinsurance' sphere. The key to success here is that in any reinsurance pool, the participants must be sure to screen out weak players and bad eggs (strong players who participate to take advantage). FOUNDERS POOL is genius. And im CERTAIN of the success of founders pool so long as its executed with diligence. Keep swimming!

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@zeev_kirsh Thank you Zeev. We heard the same from many people, who thought of this concept as a founder safety net. We believe the founder risk market is underserved and is ready for innovation.

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@zeev_kirsh Love it! Thank you Zeev!

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@zeev_kirsh To your point about weeding out the weak players and bad eggs, entrepreneurs have the most distinguished nose for smelling other entrepreneurs' B.S. So pools are self-selected through a process of mutual peer ranking among the founders where they force-rank each other but only the top-ranked make it into a pool.

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6yr ago

Congrats on launching a new type of launchpad for founders! Diversification and derisking are important parts of investing + entrepreneurship, I’m glad FounderPool creates this superset PLUS the potential social outlet for those who lack it from being overworked. Some pondering questions: - What are the plans for scaling when there are hundreds of applicants? - How would founders be matched? - Who will lead the cohort pools and how are the numbers/terms determined for each cohort? - Is there a governance structure for each cohort?

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@rightlung Thank you Victor. - We are creating a self serve platform, that makes it super fast and easy to form self selecting founders to join pools on their own. - Matching is based on preferences, stage and other factors, but each founder makes the decision to partner or not with companies. - Terms are standardized and we take care of pool formation when a minimum threshold is reached - Currently we manage each pool (fund), to take away burden from busy founders

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6yr ago

Meu 3D

interesting idea, the devil is in the details... what is your business model? do you take a cut of all companies? also, a little sad at how few women seem to be commenting, hope you are making some real attempts to diversify the companies you are working with. my startup is too early stage but after we get to a priced round I'll consider it.

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@sh_shashkes Thank you. We do take a proportionate membership in each pool (eg: if it is a 25 member pool, we will be 26th member). Regarding diversity, because selections are peer based, if more founders want diversity, we will see more representation.

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6yr ago

When are members ejected out of the pool? When a pool is filled with dead or sold companies, new members have to share profits with them, meaning a pool becomes less attractive. I assume there is a chasm between the deprecation of an existing pool and the formation of a fresh one, where either one can seem more or less attractive than they should be. ... just read that FounderPool allocates applicants to pools based on scores. I guess the question that remains is, how you govern pool formation. I would also like to know if applicants can view existing pools or just the pool suggested to them.

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6yr ago

FounderPool

Maker

@hurty_ pools are rolling, meaning a majority of members can invite new companies into an existing pool. There is no elimination once a company is in the pool, it is based on shared risk and so selection is the most important part of the step. We facilitate transparency and metrics and meeting, for founders to evaluate other founders.

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6yr ago

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