Startup Wealth Joyce Franklin

Barak Rabinowitz has developed his expertise on three continents: First as a young man on Wall Street, then as a startup founder in London, and now as co-founder of F2 Capital, a venture capital firm in Tel Aviv. Rounding out Barak’s experience is the time he served in an infantry paratroop brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces. 
After stints with Morgan Stanley and Yahoo, he co-founded one of the first social gaming companies, Amuso, which was acquired by BBC Worldwide. When he got stressed, he would invest in other startups, eventually becoming a full-time VC. F2 Capital is an Israel-oriented early-stage VC company that invests in deep technology companies at the junction of big data, artificial intelligence, and connectivity, including cybersecurity, digital health, financial services, human resources, insurance, media, real estate, retail, and software infrastructure. These are B2B or B2B2C enterprise software companies with research and development in Israel.
On this episode, Barak shares:
What he looks for in a founder before investingHow he views the most challenging phase of the Entrepreneur’s Wheel of LifeWhat founders should do within 6-12 months of their liquidity eventWhy Israeli technology is uniqueHis admiration for Americans’ sales and marketing skills
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Steve Datnow is a San Francisco Bay Area engineer and entrepreneur. He has been involved in five liquidity events, first as a startup employee, and most recently as a founder. He grew his most-recently acquired company, human resources software maker OrgChart5 Inc., from zero to 1,500 customers by bootstrapping, leveraging his connections, and negotiating well.

In this episode, Steve shares how he learned to prevent surprises by asking those interested in buying his companies the right questions about management structure, financials, and even future plans. We discuss how he navigated a merger with another company, and acquisition by private equity firm Lock 8 Partners, in the same year. Finally, we talk about the three ways to compensate a startup team—cash, stock, or a combination of the two—and the benefits and risks of each.

Like many entrepreneurs, Steve likes to take risks. That’s why as a term of the Lock 8 Partners deal, he chose compensation partially based on future company growth, what he calls the “second bite of the apple.”

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Peter Herz is a serial entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. Currently, he is general partner of 1st Course Capital, a VC firm focused on early-stage food and agricultural companies. When Peter faces tough decisions—like selling a concentrated stock position, considering investments, or choosing from a variety of paths for his portfolio companies—Peter uses a powerful tool called a decision tree. In this episode, he explains how he assigns probabilities to the various branches of the decision tree, and how this helpful tool keeps him from losing everything. 
You can create your own decision tree using the resources in the show notes. Here’s a plug-in for decision trees and other elements to support decision analysis that works on top of Excel. The link for 1st Course Capital’s decision modeling for investments is available here.
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Decision tree graphic from Startup Wealth
Decision Tree add-in for Excel
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Request a copy of The Four Phases of Startup Life and the Entrepreneur's Wheel of Life
Read Joyce's book, Startup Wealth: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Personal Financial Success and Long-Term Security

Robin Wolaner has achieved many career milestones: At 27, she was the youngest publisher of a national magazine; in 1986, she launched Parenting in a $5 million joint venture with Time Inc.; 6 years later, she became the company’s first divisional CEO to get pregnant; and during the dot-com bubble, she was an executive at CNET. A New York Times profile even once called her a “corporate entrepreneur.” 
She was so driven to launch her startup, she took on debt and a below-market salary. This approach paid off, and became the subject of an enduring Harvard Business School case study. In this episode, Robin talks about all of that, shares what she’s learned about negotiating, and offers advice to other female founders.
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Did you know that Elon Musk is not a founder of Tesla? That honor belongs to Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, longtime clients of our guest, attorney Mark Cameron White.
White shares stories and wisdom from decades of practicing law in Silicon Valley and around the world. He talks about the importance of building a collective dream for a startup, how battle scars can cause bitterness or strength, and the way most entrepreneurs build wealth in Silicon Valley. He also offers his opinions regarding the three currencies of Silicon Valley, the right amount of time to take off after a liquidity event, and why true entrepreneurs are happiest laying the foundation of their company.
We discuss the delicate balance between funding your company and supporting your family, and Joyce shares tips for protecting your assets and avoiding financial surprises when starting a company.
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Joyce interviews serial startup founder and Nextbite President Paul Allen, who started seven companies, four of which had liquidity events. He shares what he’s learned about resilience from all points in the startup lifecycle as an entrepreneur, mentor, and early angel investor.

Paul Allen has been a founder or cofounder of seven companies, four of which have had liquidity events. He’s also been an advisor or mentor at eight organizations. At Paul’s current startup Nextbite, there have been seven funding rounds totaling over $150 million dollars, including a series C round raised in October 2020 from the SoftBank vision fund. He started an early angel investment community in 1999, well before angel investing became popular.

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