MBA Mondays Live: Employee Equity

Tomorrow night at 6pm eastern time I am going to teach the first MBA Mondays Live class. I announced it a month ago and the class quickly sold out. Part of the deal with these classes is that we are going to livestream them and also make them available via an archive.

The livestream will be available here. You can click the green follow button on that page to be notified when the livestream is about to start. The archive video of the class will be available here.

This will be the first time we've ever livestreamed an event in the USV event space, something we intend to do more of. I want to downplay everyone's expectations on how good this livestream will be. We need to upgrade our internet connection. It turns out our Time Warner Cable "wideband" service is actually "narrowband". We measured it last week and we are only getting 3MB upstream. So we will not be livestreaming this class in HD and it may be tough to see what I am writing on the whiteboard.

We are in the process of getting a much better internet connection into the USV event space and we hope to be able to livestream in HD in the near future. But for tomorrow's class, I am warning everyone that the stream may be flaky and the quality may be poor.

The outline for tomorrow night's class is here. The class will have three parts; issuing employee equity, structuring employee equity, and how much equity to give out. There are links for suggested reading (archived MBA Mondays posts) for each section. If you are attending the class, I strongly suggest you review the outline and check out the required reading. If you plan on watching the livestream, you might want to check out the outline and suggested reading as well.

I am super excited to do this class. I'm a big fan of teching in front of a live classroom, and I am also a fan of allowing a much broader audience to take the class live or via the archive using the power of internet video. This should be fun. 

#MBA Mondays

Comments (Archived):

  1. William Mougayar

    Looking forward to being a student again. I’m going to be there.What time do you suspect it might end, roughly?

    1. fredwilson

      it’s scheduled to go an hour. i hope to be able to finish on time

      1. David Molina

        looking forward to it!

  2. kirklove

    #MentorToMany

  3. Brandon Burns

    Can’t wait for both the class, and to meet some AVCers at the post-class meetup @ Live Bait. http://www.meetup.com/AVC/N…

    1. William Mougayar

      Yes. I forgot ab out that. I just registered.

      1. Brandon Burns

        great. it wouldn’t be right w/o with AVC den father in attendance. 

        1. fredwilson

          Den Father!

        2. Donna Brewington White

          I wish I could give this 10 votes!

      2. Max Yoder

        How often are you in NYC, William?

        1. William Mougayar

          3-4 weeks roughly.

    2. fredwilson

      I wont be attending the post class meetup unfortunately

      1. Brandon Burns

        we’ll drink your share. :o)

    3. William Mougayar

      fyi- that link to the meetup doesn’t work any more. I think you were piggy-backing on @fredwilson’s Donors Choose meetup and it expired yesterday.

  4. ShanaC

    Remember to ask for student feedback to refine your teaching technique!

    1. fredwilson

      good idea

      1. Carl Rahn Griffith

        If needed, I am sure Helen can give you some teacher mentoring, Fred 😉

  5. gregorylent

    heh, makes my .3MB upload look a bit weak #indialooking forward to this, thanks so much

  6. JustinCambria

    Plan on checking this out, good stuff.

  7. LIAD

    “I strongly suggest you review the outline and check out the required reading” – and with that single sentence, “good ‘ole Fred”, became Mr Wilson.Sir, Yes, Sir!

    1. fredwilson

      i tell everyone who calls me that to go watch dennis the menace

      1. laurie kalmanson

        omg taking me backhttp://www.timvp.com/dennis…

    2. Donna Brewington White

      We can call him Dr. WilsonHe’ll just love that!

    3. William Mougayar

      Well, the “homework” is reading older posts. That’s not real homework!

      1. Mark Essel

        We’re in the clear then unless memory fails us 🙂

  8. Koslow

    Hey Fred,Your last name is spelled wrong on the livestream page. http://new.livestream.com/S… Looking forward to watching! MBA Mondays has come a long way.

    1. fredwilson

      Thanks for letting me know. I will ask them to fix it

  9. WA

    Managing expectations. Love it. Services marketing already a winner.

    1. fredwilson

      I practice what I preach

      1. WA

         Yes. I learned that about you about 8 years ago and why I still check in. A lot.

  10. jason wright

    Marvelous. 6pm EST? I’ll be watching in my best pyjamas.Sue Time Warner for misrepresentation and loss of reputation.

    1. fredwilson

      I think shaming them should do

  11. DanielHorowitz

    Sounds great.

  12. Carl J. Mistlebauer

    Well, FINALLY! It is a small world after all! While we have different internet providers we share the same horrible service!I just had to edit this comment as I checked who owned Insight Communications and as of 2/12/12 Time Warner does! That explains everything!Good luck on the class!

  13. sigmaalgebra

    “3MB” is a bit imprecise!Commonly MB abbreviates million bytes and Mb abbreviates million bits.Internet connection speeds are typically measured in millions of bits per second, Mbps.So, MB for an Internet connection speed seems to be in terms of bytes instead of bits and omits the per second.My connection, 70 miles north of Wall Street from CableVision, is a fairly reliable 15 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload.  CableVision also offers, as I recall, 101 Mbps download and 15 Mbps upload for about $65 a month and may have it available for you in Manhattan. 

  14. Dave Pinsen

    So we will not be livestreaming this class in HD and it may be tough to see what I am writing on the whiteboard.Maybe you can record it in HD for a future upload?

    1. fredwilson

      Hmm. I will see if we can record in HD if we arent streaming in HD. Good suggestion

      1. LE

        For future events: I never used this but says it can be used to broadcast whiteboard notes:http://www.e-beam.com/produ…eBeam Capture software records every pen stroke you make on your board, so you don’t lose any of your important ideas. Easily and securely broadcast your whiteboard notes over the Internet in real time to anyone. Record your voice with your presentation to make your meeting available online for remote colleagues or clients.

  15. Carl J. Mistlebauer

    I am lecturing my nephew on the importance of an internship before he graduates (which is December 2012)…I have also told him to go to NYC for his internship…so let me ask a stupid question (especially since I am giving all this advice); how does one direct a young person to find and apply for internships in NYC?If you think you are good then you might as well go where the competition is the best!

    1. LE

      I own a few domain names related to this.  If anyone has a site for this purpose that they’d like to build out please contact me. I would put some money behind the right person/team.nycinternjobs.comnyinternjobs.comsummerinternjobs.com

      1. Carl J. Mistlebauer

        I think this would be a great idea! It would be a great way to build an even bigger knowledge infrastructure for NYC by tapping into those young people who have initiative and ambition but due to circumstances don’t find themselves in the right geography….

    2. fredwilson

      it’s super hard. we help our kids’ friends find them. but honestly i don’t know a good way to find them other than calling around

      1. Carl J. Mistlebauer

        Like I tell everyone, “..if it ain’t hard then it ain’t worth it!” Personally, I think its a shame but 99% of the young people I deal with are looking to the past for their future not looking up and out toward the future….If I was 22 right now I would already be in NYC….come to think about it I did fly to NYC when I was 23 to catch a connecting flight to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia….Boy, that was a LONG time ago….

      1. fredwilson

        indeed!

      2. Carl J. Mistlebauer

        Thanks LE! I have been playing around with Indeed the last couple of weeks and I never thought about them during my conversation this afternoon….

    3. Cam MacRae

      What is their interest?

      1. Carl J. Mistlebauer

        Cam, that I don’t know because I don’t want to get too involved as I have hired “friends and family” as interns in the past and it never works so I am trying to maintain “a distance.”I did spend sometime last night researching internships in our local area and there really is nothing and honestly I know they are out out there but I guess its “the good ol’ boy” network thing and I think that issue needs to be addressed locally….

  16. matthughes

    I’m tuning in at 3pm PT.

    1. William Mougayar

      What part of the west coast are you in?

      1. matthughes

        Recently relocated to Bend, OR from the Bay Area.It’s beautiful here, although we’re already restless.NY beckons…

        1. William Mougayar

          I’ll be in SF W/Th in case you’re in the city, let me know 🙂

          1. matthughes

            I was there last week – I’m down in Los Angeles this week.I’ll catch you next time. 🙂

  17. John Revay

    Fred Good Luck.Re: Becoming a teacher – if the VC thing doesn’t work out at least you may have something to fall back on.Looking forward to hearing you talk about employee equity.

    1. JamesHRH

      Ummmmm, the VC thing is working out… 😉

      1. fredwilson

        for now

    2. Cam MacRae

      It worked for Tony Danza. Kinda.

  18. Donna Brewington White

    Looking at this on my phone, at first, I thought you had posted MBA Mondays a day early.This is exciting!I will be following along via archive if I can’t make the livestream.

  19. Josh Kramer

    You should be able to stream in QHD which is still plenty good to see the board, and probably a more realtime experience for those at home. While 3MBps should be enough for 720p, it’s not going to be a sustained 3mbps…and doubtful most people with home Internet can effectively watch a 720p stream live without lots of frustration. I would target 720p for archives and QHD for live streams…but that’s just me. Others may disagree.

    1. fredwilson

      we will take that under advisement(translation: i don’t know what you are talking about but i will find out)

  20. laurie kalmanson

    so awesome: making everyone smarteri’ve worked with startups where the equity was fair, and i’ve had conversations with “founders” whose opening move is that 1% of google is awesome, to which the only reply is, yes, of course it is.

  21. John Best

    If my time zone maths is right, that should make it about 11PM GMT. See you all there.

  22. Mark Essel

    Uncanny timing, definitely digging in.

  23. Clay Hebert

    I grabbed a ticket for this class but have to be in San Francisco and unfortunately won’t make it in person. Does someone want the ticket?

  24. Maxi Dresses

    If my time zone maths is right, that should make it about 11PM GMT. See you all there. 

  25. jason wright

    It’s looking good.Did Fred whip out an iphone?187,500 divided by 2.5 equals 46,000?

    1. fredwilson

      I got bad math from the audience. Lesson learned. I will do my own math going forward.

  26. gregorylent

    that was great … stayed up in india and watched it ..content, and delivery, and seeing your mind in action … learned from all of it.enjoy, gregory

  27. jason wright

    Feedback.It was good. I enjoyed watching. The image quality was good and your voice carried well.There’s always that problem hearing what the audience is asking.Some of your writing was getting a bit small to read easily on the right side of vertical line of division you drew on the board.When I was taught teacher classroom technique I was told to try to face the students and stand to my left when writing on the board (as you are right handed when writing you should try to also stand to your left) as it opens up the board and allows students to see what is being written. A small point, but it helps the students.Time for dreamland.

    1. fredwilson

      Great advice!

  28. Tom Labus

    I kept thinking about Bob Ross and and those amazing 30 minute programs to get the audience to paint a landscape.

  29. Max Haot

    Hi Fred, Livestream CEO here. I hope it went great for you, let me know of you need anything or if you have feedback on how we could have done better.Thanks for the chance to be part of it. I wish I could have attended but I’m stuck at a tradesmen in las Vegas (nab) exhibiting Livestream.

    1. fredwilson

      Your team was great and I heard the stream was good quality

    2. jason wright

       When watching the event I discovered that to leave real time comment in the comments pane to the right of the streaming window one needs to be Facebook connected. Is there no ‘open’ way to make comment in the pane (without FB)?

    3. Vitomir Jevremovic

      Great livestream quality. Well done!

  30. panterosa,

    Not sure of the live stream age range, but I managed to have PantherKitty listen to a solid 30 minutes. A lot went by her, but then when we talked after it seems actually that got a fair amount which for 10 is impressive. She was most interested in options, and how to sell options for her first company. By my estimates the price for her options just increased. #startupkid

    1. fredwilson

      i will take an option on her first startup!

  31. sejun

    I’m based out in Korea and have started a company here, and even here, your teachings have been really valuable. Keep up the great work. Thanks.

  32. jason wright

     Not being able to hear questions being asked by the audience.Is there a way to make use of the microphone in the smartphone each person in the audience (probably) has and wifi an audio link to a room speaker?  

  33. Vitomir Jevremovic

    I just love livestreams. Makes you feel like your not missing anything in the world. Also archiving for later makes it even more valuable. Fred, could you tag livestream posts or add them separately in the menu somewhere, so we could find them later more easily?Now a real question.. what about using digital (multitouch) interactive whiteboards? I’m not sure what product I would suggest.. but something that would make all your writing digital and allow interaction with prearranged (maybe even prezi style like) presentation and writings on top of it.

    1. fredwilson

      i’m just getting started on this. i plan to make it better and better. starting with removing all the “umms” in my spoken word.

  34. jason wright

    On founders and vesting. In your presentation there were three founders each taking a third share of the equity, and they vested in each other to drive the company forward. What happens if after a while two of the founders are working their socks off doing 100 hours a week while the third is only putting in 50 hours a week? Does a typical vesting agreement between founders have clause(s) that deal with this type of input imbalance possibility, and could an agreement stipulate that a founder loses equity to the other two in such or similar circumstances?

    1. fredwilson

      i think you’d probably ask that founder to leave and take back the equity if the imbalance was that bad

  35. Sachin

    Fred: Great Session!One clarification question: You mentioned one should grant retention shares every 2 years and equal to half the value of their joining grant. If we keep the vesting for retention grant as also equal to 4 years then the overall $ value of the grant is unevent. I will take a small example. Joining grant is 200K vesting over 4 years. So Y1, Y2, Y3,Y4 the emp. gets 50K each from joining grant and in Y3 & Y4 they also get 25K each from retention grant. From Y5 onwards they get in total 50K in each year. This creates a bump in Y3 & Y4. Is that correct? Thanks

    1. fredwilson

      that may well be true. i can’t do the math as i’m rushing through all the comments i am reading this morning. is there a better formula you’d suggest?

  36. William Mougayar

    Indeed. 2 cameras provide a better video viewing experience, but I think editing will be required.