Dear SaaStr: Is it True VCs Don’t Like to Invest Where Founders’ Equity is Fully Vested?

If a deal is hot and you have multiple offers, VCs won’t push as hard here as in the past.  And many pre-seed rounds on SAFEs etc often don’t even touch the topic of founder equity vesting.

#2.  Vesting Protects You More Than the VCs.  You are thinking about it wrong.

Vesting protects you. It protects you from co-founders that aren’t as committed as you. More here:

 

Yes, there is an us vs. them element to VCs. No doubt. VCs think about vesting as a way to protect themselves (not that it really does that), and more specifically, as a way to manage the cap table when folks leave the company.

But as long as you maintain control of your company and don’t give that away to the VCs, the real bummer that can come out of all of this is when your “partner” and “co-founder” flames out in 11 months and takes all their equity with them.

And you’re running the company for 10 more years. For the same number of shares your co-founder that quit on month 11 has.

You’ll really, really. Really. Wish you’d had vesting on those shares.