Personal planning for start-up founders

From Silicon Valley to Boston and virtually everywhere in between, we’re in what may be a golden age for start-up businesses. Some of the industries where, in recent years, start-ups have flourished include technology, life sciences and social media, but start-ups are transforming virtually every sector of the economy. Start-up founders are passionate about their businesses and willing to take great risks and fail. Many of these businesses are funded by venture capitalists and angel investors with the ultimate goal of being sold to a larger competitor or going public.

So much time and effort is spent growing the business and preparing for a liquidity event that the founder’s personal planning often takes a back seat. This is unfortunate. While fortunes can be made through owning a single business, they can also be lost. By planning for the personal side of a liquidity event, both before and after the transaction, a start-up founder can help mitigate risks associated with a founder’s equity (particularly income tax, estate and gift tax and concentrated equity risk), and set the stage for personal financial success. As they say, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” Just remember how many rich start-up founders of the dot-com boom in the late 1990s lost everything in the dot-com bust of the early 2000s. With the right team of specialists to consult on their planning issues, founders can avoid these missteps and position themselves for both business and personal success on the exit.