A founder’s guide to effectively managing your options pool

Extra Crunch Newsletter

Tuesday, September 07, 2021 • By Walter Thompson and Annie Saunders

Welcome to Extra Crunch Tuesday Image Credits: Tanja Ivanova / Getty Images “In today’s cash-rich environment, options are more valuable than cash,” says Allen Miller, a principal at Oak HC/FT. “In turn, managing your option pool may be the most effective action you can take to ensure you can recruit and retain talent.” In an article squarely aimed at early-stage founders, Miller shares best practices for protecting your option pool, lists the mistakes many founders make and offers multiple tips for course-correcting “if you made mistakes early on.” Jonathan Metrick, chief growth officer at Sagard & Portage Ventures, joins us today for a Twitter Spaces chat to discuss the basics of cohort analysis. In conversation with Managing Editor Danny Crichton and Senior Reporter Mary Ann Azevedo, Metrick will explain how to capture key performance metrics like churn, CAC and ARPU. The chat begins at noon PT/3 p.m. ET and is free to join. Follow @TechCrunch on Twitter to receive a reminder before the discussion starts. Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch! Walter Thompson Senior Editor, TechCrunch @yourprotagonist Read More

To commercialize, voice tech must first solve its 'cocktail party problem' Image Credits: Karnet / Getty Images Voice and speech recognition is expected to be a $26.8 billion global market by 2025, but there’s still a long way to go before voice can be fully commercialized. Developers are deploying natural language processing and conversational AI to overcome current limitations, but “solving these problems requires voice tech to meet the human standard for voice and match the complexities of the human auditory system.” Read More

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How engaged are your employees? Image Credits: katleho Seisa / Getty Images According to a recent survey, more than 70% of workers are actively hunting for a new job or are giving the matter serious consideration. In a startup environment, employee development takes a back seat to priorities like scaling growth. As a result, few managers have any experience or interest in helping employees acquire new skills or advance their careers. Don’t wait to be blindsided: Put an action plan in place to assess employee engagement. Remember, 7 out of the next 10 people you see on a video call could be polishing their resumes. Read More

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