The Startup Lawyer: Corporate & Securities Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Corporate & Securities Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Corporate & Securities Law

The Startup Lawyer

Entrepreneur and Startup Company Law

Post Frequency: 1.9/day

Last Entry: April 15, 2020 at 16:22:08

Vote for ShopSavvy in the 2008 Crunchies

Posted on December 29, 2008
ShopSavvy is a nominee in the "Best Mobile App" category

Don?t Hate On Your VC For Exercising Anti-Dilution Provisions

Posted on December 23, 2008
There’s a lot of talk about down rounds now in the venture capital industry since valuations are down. So I suspect a lot of venture-backed companies are dusting off their Series A Preferred Share Agreements and taking a look at the anti-dilution provisions held by their investor(s)...

4 Things You Might Not Know About This Startup Lawyer

Posted on December 23, 2008
1. I was a crazy stutterer. 3pm-4pm, MWF. That wasn’t my economics 502 course schedule at USC, that was my speech therapy session schedule from the 3rd to 5th grade. I’m pretty sure I only made it out of junior high alive because I was one of the biggest kids [...

Selling Your Startup with Convertible Debt

Posted on December 23, 2008
I previously mentioned that convertible debt is a good way to raise capital for most startups. The main reason why convertible debt is beneficial for startups is that it delays coming up with a valuation figure at the seed stage–the valuation conundrum is essentially punted to the Series A (or “qualified financing” stage)...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

How Will You Bootstrap in 2009?

Posted on December 23, 2008
RIP Good Times. Get rid of your cars. This recent wave of “learn to live with less” advice is nothing new to those in startups. In fact, startups just hope for the day they can have the option to live with a little more. But there are a lot of companies [...

Don?t Hate On Your VC For Exercising Anti-Dilution Provisions

The Basics of Convertible Debt Financing

Posted on December 23, 2008
Selecting the optimal structure when raising capital for your startup can be a challenging task. When clients ask me for my recommendation, I find myself recommending the convertible debt financing route more often than traditional equity financing (i...

The Basics of Convertible Debt Financing

Posted on December 22, 2008
Selecting the optimal structure when raising capital for your startup can be a challenging task. When clients ask me for my recommendation, I find myself recommending the convertible debt financing route more often than traditional equity financing (i...

Microsoft BizSpark Program for Startups

Posted on December 18, 2008
I’m probably not qualified to be telling you about software for your startup, but I wanted to mention that Microsoft is offering free software to qualified startup companies through its BizSpark Program. A few weeks ago, I had a chat with Jared Bienz with Microsoft about the BizSpark Program...

Back to the Future

Posted on December 18, 2008
I got a few compliments on my new design, but the response was overwhelmingly negative. So back to the old design it is. I’ll probably still do some tweaking to the sidebar area of this blog. Thanks to all of those that responded either way via IM, email, comments, and twitter.

Microsoft BizSpark Program for Startups

Back to the Future

The Startup Lawyer is Cleaning House

Posted on December 17, 2008
I decided to change my blog theme, as I felt the last theme had too much clutter. The rotating images on the homepage was nice, but I didn’t like how long it took to load. The best part about changing the theme is that I got rid of that picture with me in [...

Venture Capitalists Want to Skip 2009

Posted on December 17, 2008
The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released its annual “Predictions Survey.” The NVCA conducted the survey in the last 3 weeks and received more than 400 responses. As you might suspect, it looks like a tough year for VCs and startups alike...

The Startup Lawyer is Cleaning House

Venture Capitalists Want to Skip 2009

How to Get Served on Facebook

Posted on December 16, 2008
Apparently email has been used in the past to serve legal process on a person, but someone recently got served via the Facebook social network.: Australian Couple Served with Legal Documents via Facebook Service of process is important because it gives the defendant notice that a legal proceeding is going to take place...

Guy Kawasaki on NDAs

Posted on December 10, 2008
Recently I have been asked a lot of questions regarding nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and investors, either angel or venture capital. I previously wrote my thoughts on trying to drop NDAs on venture capital firms in “Why a VC Will Take a Lighter to Your NDA...

Series A Pre-Money Valuations Down 25 to 50 Percent

Posted on December 09, 2008
Connie Loizos of Private Equity Hub interviewed Bob Ackerman, co-founder of Allegis Capital, regarding the current state of the VC industry. Ackerman made a few quasi-dire statements for both startups seeking capital and firms looking to provide capital, most notably: In response to the current state of Series A pre-money valuations, Ackerman said: Depending on [...

How to Blow $340MM on Blow

Posted on December 07, 2008
I suspect more of these “startup blows millions” stories will be surfacing in the coming months, but a story in today’s SF Chronicle might be hard to top. “How ‘Visionary’ Raised - and Lost - a Fortune” details how John P...

Preferred Stock: Where ?F? in a Class Can Equal Success

Posted on November 28, 2008
If you pay any attention to TechCrunch or Venturebeat, you’ll see stories titled “Startup Raises $X Million in Y-round Financing.” When the “Y” in story is a large number, do not assume that the startup company is tanking...

I Got a Term Sheet, Now What?

Posted on November 11, 2008
Getting a term sheet from an investor is like getting an invitation to the Prom in January–you’ve got a long way to go before you dance. When you get a term sheet from a VC or angel investor, you need to decide whether the economics of the deal feel right...

Election Calls Turn to Capital Calls

Posted on November 07, 2008
The election is over and thankfully so are those robotic “vote for prop 98c(ii) or else your head will explode and dolphins will die” phone calls. However, some large institutions wish they were getting those calls instead of the capital calls from various venture firms...

7 Legal Documents for Your Tech Startup

Posted on November 05, 2008
When launching a startup, you want to make your startup as valuable as possible. But in order to do that, your tech startup needs to ensure that (a) the intellectual property is owned by the startup, and (b) the co-founders who own the startup have proper incentives and rules to handle inevitable contingencies...

Don?t Go Crazy with Complex Rounds of Seed Funding

Posted on October 21, 2008
I loved Pitch Camp. Flip Flops. Free donuts and pizza. Hours of “unauthorized” advice from the angel investor, venture capital, and journalism communities. It sure beat the heck out of any legal conference I’ve ever attended. At Pitch Camp, a fund’s partner told the crowd that he turned down a [...

You Can?t Hit a Home Run Unless You Step Up to the Plate

Posted on October 15, 2008
Judging by the recent spike of emails and calls, more of you are considering diving into the startup world. I think this is the perfect time to do so. And no, I haven’t been in a coma the last month or two. There is tremendous opportunity now...

Par Value for a Startup Company?s Stock

Posted on October 11, 2008
Par value is the minimum price that a corporation can issue its shares. While I typically see par values of either $1 or “no par value” when looking at startups that have incorporated on their own, I recommend that par value be set at $0...

How Many Shares Should a Startup Company Authorize at Incorporation?

Posted on October 10, 2008
An often overlooked aspect of filing a certificate of formation or articles of incorporation is determining how many shares the new corporation should authorize. This decision doesn’t really matter to most businesses (I don’t have a clue how many shares I authorized when I incorporated my law firm), but startup companies aren’t like most [...

Burnout Rate

Posted on October 06, 2008
In retrospect, the signs were there. Three consecutive nights dreaming about legal document drafting, a 36-hour illness almost worthy of an ER visit, and brainlock. I was burned out. I finally decided to take a break this weekend. And I’m glad I did because now everything’s back to “normal...

Coworking Confidential

Posted on September 22, 2008
Last Thursday, I became the first lawyer to spend a day working from a startup coworking environment. (Well, I’ll make the claim until someone tells me otherwise.) Coworking is a collaboration space for developers, writers, and independents. My coworking application was approved a few weeks ago, after I made the argument that [...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

Personal Injury: 5 Reasons Why Your NY Injury Lawyer Will Lose His License
1. He steals your money.2. He steals your money.3. He steals your ...

Immigration Lawyer And Assistant Found Guilty Of Visa Fraud
The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of T...

Injustice - Righting a Wrong - NY Medical Malpractice Lawyer Explains
Have you ever felt that you were wronged? Maybe you noticed it whe...

Dead Man's Family Calls NY Malpractice Lawyer First Before Burying Him
THIS IS A TRUE STORYA call came in the other day. A hysterical wom...

2 Questions Every New York Malpractice Lawyer Needs To Ask
A potential client calls the office with a story that rambles on a...