"This book provides the rare combination of practical advice and scholarly research. It gets to the heart of the people issues that can bedevil every, and I do mean every, startup. Issues such as founder motivations, equity splits, and equity control can make or break a company. I guarantee that the price of this book is approximately one-thousandth of what you'll pay lawyers to clean up your mess if you don't read it."--Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment and former chief evangelist of Apple

List of Illustrations vii Part I: Introduction and Pre-founding 1 Chapter One: Introduction 3 Chapter Two: Career Dilemmas 27 Part II: Founding Team Dilemmas 69 Chapter Three: The Solo-versus-Team Dilemma 73 Chapter Four: Relationship Dilemmas: Flocking Together and Playing with Fire 89 Chapter Five: Role Dilemmas: Positions and Decision Making 117 Chapter Six: Reward Dilemmas: Equity Splits and Cash Compensation 145 Chapter Seven: The Three RsSystem: Alignment and Equilibrium 186 Part III: Beyond the Founding Team: Hires and Investors 205 Chapter Eight: Hiring Dilemmas: The Right Hires at the Right Time 209 Chapter Nine: Investor Dilemmas: Adding Value, Adding Risks 249 Chapter Ten: Failure, Success, and Founder-CEO Succession 297 Part IV: Conclusion 329 Chapter Eleven: Wealth-versus-Control Dilemmas 331 Acknowledgments 387 Appendix A: Quantitative Data 391 Appendix B: Summary of Startups and People 403 Notes 425 Bibliography 451 Index 467