I need to understand things like:<p><pre><code> 1. how vesting works (and what that means if you leave/get fired before the vesting period)
2. Prefered vs common stock in a buyout situation
3. How stock options work
4. Good dilution vs bad dilution and what that means when I have a N% equity stake
</code></pre>
etc.<p>This is, "As a co-founder/CTO in a startup" not "as a founder I want to give equity away to bring on money/a cofounder/whatever"
This should be a good primer <a href="http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-software-startup-how-do-i-allocate-ownership-fairly/23326#23326" rel="nofollow">http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/6949/forming-a-new-s...</a>
Most of those questions can be answered by reading articles online and running some scenarios in a spreadsheet. if you want to get deeper into the financial side, I recommend the book Handbook of Financing Growth: Strategies, Capital Structure, and M&A Transactions. [1] It assumes some background in corporate finance, but it is a good primer on growth financing with a lot of good case studies from which you can develop some spreadsheet models.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Handbook-Financing-Growth-Transactions/dp/0470390158/ref=dp_ob_title_bk" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/The-Handbook-Financing-Growth-Transact...</a>