Introduction
I’ve been helping entrepreneurs raise capital as a securities lawyer for 17+ years, and there are certain fundamental legal mistakes that I’ve seen entrepreneurs make over and over again. Accordingly, I thought it would be helpful to share three basic tips for entrepreneurs in connection with raising capital. (Note: this post was originally published on The Huffington Post.)
I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and my blog-related tweets. If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here. Cheers, Scott
To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we are sharing a bonus video: the first keynote address at the 7th Founder Showcase in San Francisco entitled “The Anatomy of a Fundable Startup,” presented by Naval Ravikant. This is the bookend to Mark Suster’s address, “Getting Funded in a Frothy Market” (which we posted on Friday).
To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we again present Mark Suster, a partner at GRP Partners, blogger extraordinaire, and a very smart entrepreneur turned VC.
Introduction
I love working with startups – and trying to protect founders and watch their backs. Not only are there key contractual issues that must be buttoned-down (like vesting and IP assignment), but also there is a minefield of laws and regulations that must be complied with. Indeed, in a world of easy access to online documents, it is often this legal compliance which is overlooked by founders, as they attempt to stay “lean” and “scrappy” (and sometimes even handle the legal work themselves or through a web service). As discussed below, however, non-compliance with certain laws could lead to founders’ criminal liability.
I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and my blog-related tweets. If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here. Cheers, Scott
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
Welcome to our weekly series: “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.” Each week, we post a short video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs. Why? Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward. I hope these videos are a little juice. Cheers, Scott
To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Michael Yavonditte, currently the founder and CEO of Hashable and Tracked, and formerly the CEO of Quigo (which was sold to AOL in 2007 for $340 million) — and a very smart, impressive entrepreneur (and mentor).
In this solid, three-minute interview via Founder Stories (one of my favorite podcasts), Michael provides some excellent advice to startups, including the importance of (i) hiring great people, (ii) a “good” and “sensible” idea, (iii) flexibility and (iv) “sequencing” and “prioritization.” I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and my blog-related tweets. If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here. Cheers, Scott
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.” Each week, we post a short video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs. Why? Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.
This week, as a special tribute to all our female clients and friends, we present Sheryl Sandberg’s recent commencement speech at Barnard in which she provides the following advice (applicable to both men and women):
I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Introduction
This post originally appeared as part of the “Ask the Attorney” column I am writing for VentureBeat; it is another installment of my ongoing series regarding venture capital term sheets. Here are the issues I have addressed to date:
In today’s post, I examine conversion rights of investors.
I’m using Twitter as a form of micro-blogging to share interesting blog posts, articles and podcasts relating to entrepreneurship and startups, M&A and legal issues. If you missed this past week’s Twitter updates, below are my five most popular tweets (via bit.ly) and my blog-related tweets. If you’d like to see all of my tweets (or an RSS feed of them), you can do so here. Cheers, Scott
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar
Welcome to our series, “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.” Each week or two, we post a short video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs. Why? Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward. I hope these videos are a little juice. Cheers, Scott
Introduction
This post was originally part of my “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs). Below is a longer, more comprehensive version. Please shoot me any questions you may have in the comments section – or feel free to call me directly at 310-288-6667 (Los Angeles) or 415-979-9998 (San Francisco). Many thanks, Scott
Question
We launched a consumer internet site about a year ago, and we’re starting to get some really good traction. We’ve spoken to a bunch of angel investors and they all told us that we need to get an engineer on our team (my partner and I are both business guys and we outsourced the development). The problem is we’re in Silicon Valley, and we obviously don’t have the money to compete with the big tech companies for talent. Can you please give us some advice on hiring a superstar engineer and the key legal issues that we should be addressing. Thanks!
To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we post a short video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.
This week, we present a panel of extraordinary entrepreneurs and investors moderated by Don Dodge: Joe Kraus, currently a partner at Google Ventures; Paul Buchheit, currently a partner at Y Combinator; and Seth Priebatsch, the founder of SCVNGR. You can follow them on Twitter at @DonDodge, @jkraus, @paultoo and @sethpriebatsch, respectively.
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