1) We screen companies based on their quality, ex: a round raised within the last 3-6 months.
2) Founders get to interact with participating companies and rank them based on their insight. Only companies that are highly ranked get into a pool. A pool is also dynamic and founders in the pool can invite new startups based on their interactions.
Overall, this is based on the concept that founders are often good judges of other founders/startups. And pool is more than just for risk diversification, they get a community of founders ready to help your startup because they are vested in it.
If a company has raised capital and done so recently, how would you compare this to the founder selling an equivalent amount of their shares in into that round (secondary)?
IOW, if a founder has liquidity and a priced round, in which situations is this better or worse?
My question was a little different. FounderPool provides a lot of diversification (relative to shares in 1 company) and potentially, earlier liquidity. But if I’m able to sell shares into a funding round, don’t I get that anyway?
I’d get cash rather than shares in a fund (and later, cash), but for someone interested in doing this, getting cash seems like the goal and is still investable elsewhere.
So, why not take the shares I’d contribute to FounderPool and sell them into my B round? If I want outsized exposure to a small set of equities other than my own, I could invest that cash in 10 smaller public equities and still get high-variance outcomes - maybe I pick a future Shopify, probably I don’t - but for someone after liquidity anyway, that part doesn’t seem like a feature.
If you can sell shares on the open market, that's certainly a win, but it's likely to occur until series C and many boards may block secondary market sales as it competes with the company's own ability to raise capital.
Because of the condition for participation in the pool is that your stock should continue to vest, for the membership shares in the pool to continue to vest.
Overall, this is based on the concept that founders are often good judges of other founders/startups. And pool is more than just for risk diversification, they get a community of founders ready to help your startup because they are vested in it.