Founder Fridays No. 96
Product Launch Framework - #clientbrag - Bad Homepages
Happy Friday.
If you’re looking for some music to play in the background at your 4th of July BBQ, you may want to check out my annual country music playlist. Clocking in just over 9 hours, it features some of the best tracks from this year, but covers a lot of 00’s and 90’s country. Enjoy!
Product Launch Framework
Here’s a simple framework for launching a product: Tease × Hype × Collect × Push/Pull. 1) Tease :Anticipation and curiosity. 2) Hype: With a campaign that gets people talking. 3) Collect: Emails and SMS opt-ins from the hype. 4) Push & Pull: With targeted marketing, and promote twice as much. This article uses a case study to explain how it works. Marketing Examined (7 minutes)
#clientbrag
This week, Coder (a provider of cloud development environments, CDEs), raised a substantial $35 million funding round, extending its Series B, with Georgian leading the investment and participation from Uncork Capital, Notable Capital and Redpoint Ventures. This funding will fuel the expansion of Coder's platform, which offers preconfigured cloud environments for enterprise developer use cases, and support its global growth. CDEs are gaining importance in the tech industry by providing remotely hosted software development tools, addressing challenges such as environment conflicts and security risks associated with local development. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 60% of cloud workloads will be built and deployed using CDEs, underscoring the growing significance of platforms like Coder in the software development landscape. We were honored to serve as legal counsel for Coder on this deal. TechCrunch (4 minutes)
Bad Homepages
Homepage creators often fall into four bad habits that lead to vague and unclear messaging. 1) Speaking to multiple audiences at once, trying to summarize the value and functionality for every potential segment, instead of choosing one group as a representative example. 2) Choosing the wrong champion, often targeting C-suite executives who are too senior and not directly involved in purchasing software. 3) Sharing multi-order benefits, such as claiming the product will increase revenue instead of focusing on the immediate, tangible benefits the product provides. 4) Using vision-messaging, leading with the founder's vision instead of what the product does today, and putting the burden on customers to figure out how and why they could use the product. Product Growth (11 minutes)
Founder FAQ: What Is an Early Exercisable Stock Option?
An “early exercisable” stock option is an option that can be exercised by the holder before it has vested. This type of stock option allows the employee, consultant, advisor or other service provider (collectively referred to as “employee” henceforth) to immediately exercise all or a portion of the option, including the unvested portion of the award. For example, let’s say you received an early exercisable stock grant with a four-year vesting schedule. The moment you receive that grant, you could exercise the entire stock option, even the unvested portion. When the option is exercised early, the employee receives common stock. However, that common stock remains subject to the same vesting schedule attached to the stock option, making it restricted stock. Like restricted stock, if the employee ends their relationship with the company before fully vesting the shares, the company will buy back the unvested shares. Westaway (6 minutes)
Startup Funding Guides
I’ve put together a series of guides to equip founders to excel at fundraising. These guides break down the deal term by term and give you negotiation tips so that you can speak to investors with confidence.
Convertible Note: Guide / Video
Extending Your Runway with General Counsel
In this economy, every startup is looking to lower burn rate and extend runway. We helped a Series A generative AI drastically reduce their legal spend by switching to our General Counsel service. When we first met the owners, they were working with a big law firm and felt they were overpaying for basic legal work. Nearly every month, they got a hefty bill just to cover equity grants, contract reviews and lawyer calls/emails. When they switched to General Counsel at Westaway, they:
Got more personal service and quicker response times.
Significantly reduced their legal spend.
With faster deal execution and lower spend, they extended runway and improved cash flow. If you're looking to optimize legal costs and extend runway, click here to schedule a call. Let's discuss whether on-demand General Counsel is right for your startup.
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