Founder Agreements and Stock Vesting – Building a Team, Protecting Yourself, Managing Expectations

Entrepreneur’s Network – 7:00PM – 10:00PM, Tuesday, 3 February

Founder Agreements and Stock Vesting – Building a Team, Protecting Yourself, Managing Expectations

Meeting location – Constant Contact, Great Room, 3^r  Floor, 1601 Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA.

PRE-MEETING DINNER at 5:15 PM (sharp) at Bertucci’s, Waltham.

How do you find co-founders? How do you recruit a core team? You guessed it – by networking. That includes trade groups like ENET but also your own personal network. There are also groups that provide matching making for co-founders. But you do want to be careful. Joining with a co-founder is like going into a marriage. You could spend years and go through much of your money, and you need to both trust and respect your co-founder to share that with you. So, it’s best not to just jump in bed but rather get to know your co-founder for months before or perhaps have prior work experience.

Even then you still want to protect yourself. Things change. For some, family becomes more important. Others can’t continue to live on ramen. It’s critical to have both core team and founder’s vesting – so that if someone leaves you can get all or most of their stock back.

There are other issues to include in your Founders Agreement that protects yourself and the company you are founding. These include relations with past employers, ownership of IP and keeping trade secrets. You also want to manage the expectations of founders, your core team and investors. You need a plan. It doesn’t have to be a 50-page business plan, but some drawn up plan that includes targets you hope to achieve. It will change often and being agile is an important trait of a successful team, but you want to be honest with everyone and keep all on the same page and engaged in the decision making including when major course corrections are needed.

Those are the issues of Co-Founders and Core Team, that ENET will take up on February 3, with an expert panel of three well recognized serial entrepreneurs and co-founders, moderated by the prominent Boston startups attorney and ENET Chairman, Rob Adelson and serial entrepreneur Stacey Arbetter.

Speaker: Kartik Shah, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Skyscape  www.skyscape.com, a leader in mobile medical information technology.  Kartik is also Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mobiuso, a company that uses its knowledge of Mobile apps and the ecosystem to accelerate a business idea for new enterprises or established ones needing to shift gears for the mobile solutions.  www.mobiuso.com With his partner  and co-founder, Kartik led the sale of the company to a New York private equity group Perseus, LLC in 2009. From 2010 to Sep 2012, Kartik served as the Chief Technology Officer of Physicians Interactive Holding, an aggregate of three healthcare technology companies held by Perseus, including Skyscape. In August 2013, Kartik along with his partner reacquired Skyscape’s healthcare academic centers and association business from Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund. Kartik brings more than 20 years experience in cutting-edge technology development to both Skyscape and Mobiuso and their  development of  mobile and wireless programs.   Before joining Skyscape, Kartik served at Cornerstone Software as Vice President of Software Development.  Kartik is also an angel investor and serves on the screening committee of the TiE Angels Boston group www.tieangelsboston.com  Kartik earned his M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI), Bombay and has completed advanced management courses offered by the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.

Speaker: Sarah Biller is a Co-Founder and President of Capital Market Exchange a venture-backed Predictive Analytics firm utilizing advances in big data, machine learning, text analysis and visualization technologies to transform bond investor sentiment into actionable trading strategies. http://www.capital-market-exchange.com/about.html Ms. Biller has spent much of her career building networks of executives, enabling them to address common challenges and improve their performance. Prior to Capital Market Exchange, Ms. Biller worked for Fidelity Investments and held responsibility for the analytic process to renew the firm’s major contracts with the fund’s Board of Trustees. Ms. Biller has also been a Principal in the launch of several successful start-ups, including Cambridge Healthtech Advisors, and worked on MCI’s corporate ventures and analysis team. She also held multiple roles at the Corporate Executive Board launching and leading best practices research programs for corporate finance and treasury executives at Fortune 500 companies. Sarah is an outcome-driven, energetic Senior Executive with experiences in pioneering start-ups and high-growth companies. Leveraging a combination of strong quantitative and analytic skills, strategic insights and interpersonal relationships, drives business objectives and profitable results. Ms. Biller completed studies in finance at Harvard University, George Washington University and West Virginia University.

Speaker: Harry Glorikian founded and co-founded two highly successful businesses, with more than two decades of experience building successful business ventures in North America, Europe and Asia. He is best known and respected for delivering strong and sustainable financial returns to owners, investors, and other key stakeholders. He has served as chief executive, board member, and consultant, and is well known for achievements in life sciences, healthcare, and healthcare IT. He invests in life science companies and is also an avid inventor, he holds two US patents in telecommunications, with others pending. Harry started his career as sales manager at BioGenex Laboratories. Three years later, he founded X-Cell Laboratories (specializing in pathology assays for clinical and research labs), and within one year positioned the company for successful acquisition. He was recruited to Signet Laboratories to kick-start sales and market presence, built the sales team from the ground up, established an IT network and CRM software, and reformulated the key product line. His global reputation took off and solidified with the cofounding of Scientia Advisors. Scientia quickly and steadily grew to become the go-to provider of strategic advice and implementation services for healthcare and life science next-generation innovators and Global 25 market leaders in spite of the recent financial crisis. Harry holds an MBA from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University. He currently serves on the Boards of Nucelis (agricultural biotech spin-off), GeneNews Ltd. (TSX: GEN), and Draper Laboratory (research facility for space exploration, security, healthcare, and energy).

Moderator: Robert Adelson, business and tax attorney and partner at the Boston law firm of Engel & Schultz LLP (www.engelschultz.com ), and Chairman of IEEE Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network (ENET) is the meeting moderator and co-organizer. Rob began his legal career as an associate at major New York law firms Dewey Ballantine and later Weil Gotshal & Manges, before returning home to Boston in 1985 where he has since been a partner in small and medium sized firms before joining his present firm in 2004. Rob represents entrepreneurs, start-ups and small companies, independent contractors and employees and executives. His main practice areas are: Business formation, allocation of equity and angel and VC finance; Commercial contracts, licensing, alliances; Executive employment, stock, options and severance; Trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets; M&A. For his work representing CEOs and C-level executives, Rob has a personal website www.exectuiveemploymentattorney.com Rob is a frequent speaker on business law topics and author of numerous articles published in Boston Business Journal, Mass High Tech and other publications. Rob has been on the ENET Board since 2002 and Chairman since 2009 and is also a Board member of the 128 Innovation Capital Group. He holds degrees from Boston University, B.A., summa cum laude, Northwestern University (Chicago), J.D., Law Review, and New York University, LL.M. in Taxation.

Moderator: Stacey Arbetter, Co-founder & CEO of Mutt Maps, Inc., http:/muttmaps.com/Stacey is a Serial Entrepreneur of several successful startups including the leading supplier in North America of an industrial product for the transportation industry and, previously, the largest independent exporter of automobiles in the U.S. Excels at identifying market opportunities. She is motivated by new challenges where complex, innovative problem-solving skills and business strategy can bring direct and immediate value to an enterprise.  Stacey latest startup is Mutt Maps.  Mutt Maps is a web app developing a community for pet owners that delivers community-reviewed, geolocated, pet-friendly places, services and products.

Meeting Location: Constant Contact, Inc., 1601 Trapelo Rd., 3^RD Floor, The Great Room, Waltham, MA (Exit 28B, I-95/Route 128)

Pre-meeting Dinner at 5:15 PM (sharp) at Bertucci’s, Waltham.

 Check for Updates at: Boston Entrepreneurs’ Network Website at ( http://www.bostonenet.org )

Directions: http://www.constantcontact.com/about-constant-contact/office-locationwaltham.jsp

Reservations: ENET Constant Contact meetings are free to ENET members and $20 for non-members. No reservations are needed for the dinner. To expedite sign-in for the meeting, we ask that everyone — members as well as non-members — pre-register for the meeting online. Pre-registration is available until midnight the day before the meeting. If you cannot pre-register, you are welcome to register at the door.