What Is the Felicis Founder Pledge?

Aydin Senkut says the Felicis founder pledge is a promise that the firm will never vote its shares against the founder. He thinks most founders do not trust their investors, and that one line puts Felicis in a small group of firms. Founders still show up having heard that Felicis votes its shares with them and gives them the pledge.

The pledge sets aside 1% of the investment, taken from management fees, for therapy, coaching, or anything else that money covers. The point is to make a founder harder to break. The most successful moments are also the most stressful, and he would rather put money into resilience than leave someone exposed when people come after them. He treats the work as the same job he had building his own firm. No hustle is too small, and the founder is still the person who has to figure out the next curveball.