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Today’s Menu ☕️
NYC Tech Week Events (Return the Fun(d) returns)
Clerky Partnership
Quick Thoughts on Startup Advisors
👋 Hi, Breakfast Club Members!
Welcome to the new readers and the OG Tech Breakfast Club members alike - if you’re working on something cool, let me know about it. I’d love to help.
Mitch Hedberg had a joke once about how he likes to pinch the mic cord and then let it go so you hear a bunch of jokes all at once - that’s how I feel about this newsletter. Instead of jokes though, it’s events.
I’ve been busy - clients, events, travel, Miami Tech Week (I missed my flight), the Masters (you might have seen me on TV) - but now it’s time to update you on Tech Breakfast Club.
Also, thank you to Clerky (how the best startups get legal paperwork done) for sponsoring this newsletter. Respond to this newsletter if you’re ready to form your startup - TBC members (you) get $100 off Clerky’s already low price for setting up your company.
Tech Breakfast Club Events
El Segundo Tech Breakfast Club May 8th with Riot Ventures. Shoutout to Meghan Moreland and David Tearse from Riot.
NYC Tech Breakfast Club May 15th with Rachel Braun.
AI Focused NYC Tech Breakfast Club May 22nd with Julien Reiman from Baseten
SF Tech Breakfast Club June 18th with Jack McClelland
Tech Breakfast Club NY Tech Week Events
If you’d like to partner or sponsor anything for NYC Tech Week - get in touch
Return the Fun(d) Tech Week Party Friday June 7th. We’re back with unprecedented amounts of DPI. Join me and hundreds of other Tech Breakfast Club members for a blowout party.
Tuesday Evening Standup Meeting with Underground Overground Comedy, June 4th
NYC Tech Breakfast Club Meetup (BIG) Tuesday, June 4th, with Kate Chichi of Founders Club
NYC Tech Breakfast Club Meetup (small) Thursday, June 6th with Lori Berenberg of Bloomberg Beta
VC Golf Outing (20 slots) Friday, June 7th. We’re playing a sick course accessible by boat from lower Manhattan.
Clerky 🤝 Tech Breakfast Club
Shoutout to the Tech Breakfast Club Members who have already taken me up on this offer!
I’m beyond excited to announce that Clerky and Tech Breakfast Club are partners. When you’re ready to start your company, email me (or reply to any TBC newsletter), and I’ll invite you to a special Clerky portal - as a Tech Breakfast Club member, you’ll save $100 on Clerky’s already reasonable fees.
Whenever a founder comes to me for legal services and I find out that they’ve incorporated with Clerky, I breathe a sigh of relief. I love Clerky and trust their documents. As a lawyer, it saves me a ton of headaches if you just use Clerky and get formation done right the first time.
External Counsel
Quick Thoughts on Startup Advisors
Triangulate advice: Don’t treat anyone as the end all/be all authority. Talk to multiple people with different experiences and use your judgement.
Use an Advisor Agreement: The Founder Institute’s Fast Agreement is totally fine. There should be zero ambiguity about confidentiality and who owns the contributions, IP, etc that result from the advisory services.
Equity %, Vesting Schedule, Cliff, Acceleration: If an advisor expects cash from an early-stage startup, that’s usually a red flag (there are exceptions). Pre equity round, 0.25%-0.5% is typical. 1% for someone extremely strategic. After the equity round, the % shifts down a bit.
Also, use a 1 or 2-year vesting schedule and a 3-month cliff along with full single-trigger acceleration on a change of control. Advisors get full acceleration because acquirers never expect them to stick around after a sale.
Maybe time-based vesting isn’t a fit – you can explore milestone-based vesting if there are clear deliverables. Be careful with drafting your agreement, though.
Use that Cliff: You’ll know pretty quickly if an advisor is actually providing value. If they’re falling short of expectations, cut ‘em loose. Your equity is precious.
About Morgan
Morgan, besides running Tech Breakfast Club, is a Startup Lawyer at Optimal, an elite lean boutique startup law firm repping clients funded by a16z, Sequoia, Kleiner, Accel, and countless other VCs. He works with clients from formation to exit, in collaboration with Optimal’s partners.