The Founder Perk Showing Up in More VC Deals

You’ll sometimes find signs of the times buried in companies’ bland corporate charters. The latest example: A growing number of startups that raised venture capital this year have issued a type of stock designed to make it easier for founders to sell some of their stakes.

Nearly 11% of companies that raised money in the first half of the year issued founder preferred stock—nearly double the percentage from two years ago, according to Aumni, a JPMorgan Chase–owned investment software firm that specializes in analyzing legal documents. For convoluted reasons I’ll explain later, this stock has advantages to common stock when founders want to sell.