
1% Of Nothing Launches To Get Startups Donating Equity - mgrouchy
http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/1-percent-nothing/
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PabloOsinaga
Nice idea and initiative. I admire the effort.

Some feedback on the name: while it succinctly denotes how it works, I feel it
has some negative connotations.

For a founding team and investors to commit 1% of equity to charity, it is a
big deal. "1% is nothing" sound patronizing. Moreover, I don't know any single
founder that wants to be associated with someone that characterizes the value
of his/her startup as 'nothing' - as in 1% of nothing - i.e., your company is
worth nothing.

Of course I understand the spirit of where you are trying to go, but as a
byproduct you are generating this negative (unconscious?) connotations that I
would try to avoid.

Perhaps '1% means a lot' or something along those lines would be more
appealing.

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indiekid
Thanks for the comment, and I appreciate your honesty. When we say "1% of
Nothing", it means (and generally has been assumed by most) that it refers to
when the company starts. Clearly once the company has traction, it's not worth
"nothing".

But the thing is - the name is to provoke an emotion. First it's to make you
realize that you still keep 99% of your company, or even just 99% of the
shares that you've been granted. Second it's to point out that at the early
stages, it really is worth basically nothing on paper. Obviously there's far
more value in it than that, but we're trying to stir up a reaction - good or
bad - that can prompt a thought.

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Joakal
If it takes off, I predict that there'll be news of how a company will try to
avoid the pledge after the "idealistic founder" pledged it. And it'll blow up
in mainstream media how startup owners screwed the charity, putting off more
other workers.

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rudiger
Given the Zynga fiasco, is this a good or bad time to launch a startup about
donating early-stage equity?

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dylangs1030
Doesn't really matter, before Zynga there was Skype, and so on. Doesn't reach
the public eye nearly enough to cause a huge scare in venture investing.

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stellar678
Brilliant move to latch onto the 1%/99% rhetoric flying around right now.

Also, a pretty neat idea. I wonder how VCs, etc... would look at a company
with that odd percent-chunk missing in funding rounds.

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indiekid
I'd love to take credit for that "brilliant move", but it was totally
accidental. Michael Birch came up with the name back in April!

As an aside, there's nothing missing in the funding rounds. In the current
iteration, this is a pledge given by the founders, which means they don't
actually give up their 1% until the very end (an acquisition).

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dylangs1030
Great idea. Although, I'd have to say, I think part of the reason early-stage
startups don't pledge equity already ("nonexistent", as he said) is because
they're so busy and it's just not on their minds. This might change that,
though, which is arguably a good thing.

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MattBearman
This is one amazing 'how did no one think of that before' ideas!

Really hope it goes well, and no one tries to back out of the deal once their
start-up hits the big time (I'm looking at you Zynga)

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chetan51
I love this idea.

