Posts Tagged ‘broker-dealer’

Convertible Note Seed Financings: Founders Beware!

by Scott Edward Walker on May 15th, 2012

This post is the third part of a three-part primer on convertible note seed financings.  Part 1, entitled “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Convertible Note Seed Financings (But Were Afraid To Ask),” addressed the basics.  Part 2, entitled “Convertible Note Seed Financings: Econ 101 for Founders,” addressed the economics.  This part will address certain tricky issues.

[This post was originally published on TechCrunch.]

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Is the House Crowdfunding Bill Being Killed in the Senate?

by Scott Edward Walker on March 1st, 2012

“The Senate is the place where bills go to die.” Bill Maher

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Crowdfunding Bill Stuck in the Senate

by Scott Edward Walker on January 13th, 2012

In early November, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, a crowdfunding bill which permits startups to offer and sell securities via crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter or social networking sites like Facebook.  As I discuss below, this is a game-changer for startups and lifts certain securities law prohibitions that have been on the books since the 1930’s.

The Obama Administration supports the House bill and noted in its Statement of Administrative Policy that: “This bill will make it easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital and create jobs.”  Unfortunately, two very different crowdfunding bills have been introduced in the U.S. Senate, and committee hearings have been surprisingly focused on fraud concerns and other potential problems.  Indeed, it is unclear whether the Senate will even pass a crowdfunding bill (and, if so, in what form).

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Crowdfunding Update: FAQ’s for Entrepreneurs

by Scott Edward Walker on December 1st, 2011

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Raising Capital? 3 Tips for Entrepreneurs

by Scott Edward Walker on June 30th, 2011

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.)

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“Ask the Attorney” – Beware of Finders

by Scott Edward Walker on February 24th, 2010

Introduction

This post is part of my weekly “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of the most popular websites for entrepreneurs).  As the VentureBeat Editor notes on the site: “Ask the Attorney is a new VentureBeat feature allowing start-up owners to get answers to their legal questions.”

I have two goals here: (i) to encourage entrepreneurs to ask law-related questions regardless of how basic they may be; and (ii) to provide helpful responses in plain English (as opposed to legalese).  Please give me your feedback in the comments section.  Many thanks, Scott

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