Corporate & Securities Law

The Funded Founder Institute Posts ?Class F? Startup Documents

By Ryan Roberts

I got a tip from @Pietari that another set of startup documents were released today. The Funded Founder Institute just released a very founder-favorable set of startup documents centered around “Class F Common Stock.”

The Class F Common offers founders various protective provisions such as:

-2 to 1 Board votes per founder relative to non-founder board members
-10 to 1 share votes relative to regular common shares
-Monthly vesting with no cliff
-Approval rights on new investments, liquidity events, increases to Board size, etc.

Why did the Institute create Class F? They answer this question on their website (www.founderinstitute.com):

Since the internet bubble burst, a number of enhanced protective provisions have been introduced into preferred stock. As an example, “participating preferred” has become commonplace since the last crash. Meanwhile, there have been comparatively few advances to protect founders, who are forced to accept historically bad investment terms and being terminated from their companies by investors in the current economic environment.

They also go on to claim:

Class F is [the] most founder-centric shares created to date, including more generous than the infamous founder agreements of Larry and Sergey at Google. Companies in the Institute also have a warrant that requires permission from the Institute when a founder is removed from the Board of Directors, or the company will suffer a financial penalty.

The set of startup documents include the Certificate of Incorporation and the Stock Purchase Agreement, along with Institute-specific Founders Agreement and Warrant. Check them out here.

Full post as published by The Startup Lawyer on April 23, 2009 (boomark / email).