1% Of Nothing Launches To Get Startups Donating Equity | Hacker News Reader

1% Of Nothing Launches To Get Startups Donating Equity

techcrunch.com

34 pointsmgrouchy13 comments

Nice idea and initiative. I admire the effort.

Some feedback on the name: while it succinctly denotes how it works, I feel it has some negative connotations.

For a founding team and investors to commit 1% of equity to charity, it is a big deal. "1% is nothing" sound patronizing. Moreover, I don't know any single founder that wants to be associated with someone that characterizes the value of his/her startup as 'nothing' - as in 1% of nothing - i.e., your company is worth nothing.

Of course I understand the spirit of where you are trying to go, but as a byproduct you are generating this negative (unconscious?) connotations that I would try to avoid.

Perhaps '1% means a lot' or something along those lines would be more appealing.

Thanks for the comment, and I appreciate your honesty. When we say "1% of Nothing", it means (and generally has been assumed by most) that it refers to when the company starts. Clearly once the company has traction, it's not worth "nothing".

But the thing is - the name is to provoke an emotion. First it's to make you realize that you still keep 99% of your company, or even just 99% of the shares that you've been granted. Second it's to point out that at the early stages, it really is worth basically nothing on paper. Obviously there's far more value in it than that, but we're trying to stir up a reaction - good or bad - that can prompt a thought.

I don't have a problem with the name. I think most founders/investors will see it as meaning the current value of the company is insignificant compared to what they hope it will one day become.

If it takes off, I predict that there'll be news of how a company will try to avoid the pledge after the "idealistic founder" pledged it. And it'll blow up in mainstream media how startup owners screwed the charity, putting off more other workers.

Given the Zynga fiasco, is this a good or bad time to launch a startup about donating early-stage equity?

Doesn't really matter, before Zynga there was Skype, and so on. Doesn't reach the public eye nearly enough to cause a huge scare in venture investing.

This is an idea, not a startup. It's about giving, which is universal. We would have launched it the day of the economic meltdown a few years ago and the message would have remained the same.

I don't see how that relates to this.

Brilliant move to latch onto the 1%/99% rhetoric flying around right now.

Also, a pretty neat idea. I wonder how VCs, etc... would look at a company with that odd percent-chunk missing in funding rounds.

I'd love to take credit for that "brilliant move", but it was totally accidental. Michael Birch came up with the name back in April!

As an aside, there's nothing missing in the funding rounds. In the current iteration, this is a pledge given by the founders, which means they don't actually give up their 1% until the very end (an acquisition).

Great idea. Although, I'd have to say, I think part of the reason early-stage startups don't pledge equity already ("nonexistent", as he said) is because they're so busy and it's just not on their minds. This might change that, though, which is arguably a good thing.

This is one amazing 'how did no one think of that before' ideas!

Really hope it goes well, and no one tries to back out of the deal once their start-up hits the big time (I'm looking at you Zynga)

I love this idea.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com