Hi Nina, I was curious as to whether some university equity is valuable alignment, and if so what levels? Kevin, a new subscriber, fellow Shack15 member!
Hey Kevin! Great question. I'm a believer that generally university technology transfer offices are trying to gain too much from a startup when they are in the earliest stages and typically are taking far too much away from the founders. They also do these negotations with first-time founders who don't have the legal resources avaliable to them to know that it's a founder-unfriendly deal. However, I also believe the university should get an upside for providing the education, infrastructure and resources to enable the inventor to create their product and company, but I think it should be <5%. Furthermore, in order for the university to get more upside, I think the university should actually give the startup initial seed funding in exchange for a little more equity as a boost.
Thanks Nina (and I missed seeing your reply, while traveling in Europe). That makes sense, and such an important question for Founders, to dig deeper in all angles, is “where is this a good deal for me”?
Hi Nina, I was curious as to whether some university equity is valuable alignment, and if so what levels? Kevin, a new subscriber, fellow Shack15 member!
Hey Kevin! Great question. I'm a believer that generally university technology transfer offices are trying to gain too much from a startup when they are in the earliest stages and typically are taking far too much away from the founders. They also do these negotations with first-time founders who don't have the legal resources avaliable to them to know that it's a founder-unfriendly deal. However, I also believe the university should get an upside for providing the education, infrastructure and resources to enable the inventor to create their product and company, but I think it should be <5%. Furthermore, in order for the university to get more upside, I think the university should actually give the startup initial seed funding in exchange for a little more equity as a boost.
Thanks Nina (and I missed seeing your reply, while traveling in Europe). That makes sense, and such an important question for Founders, to dig deeper in all angles, is “where is this a good deal for me”?