Introduction
This post was originally part of my “Ask the Attorney” series which I am writing for VentureBeat (one of the most popular websites for entrepreneurs). Below is a longer, more comprehensive version — with ten mistakes, instead of six.
Posts Tagged ‘diligence’
Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Jeff Clavier
Thursday, May 20th, 2010To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our new weekly series entitled “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we will post a short video interview of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of relevant topics to help entrepreneurs succeed.
Earlier this week, we presented Naval Ravikant. Today (as a bonus interview for this week), we present Jeff Clavier, the founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, who discusses what he looks for in startups (“it’s people, product, market”) and diligence issues. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks, Scott
Doing Deals in the New Decade: 7 Tips for Entrepreneurs
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010Introduction
This post is a longer, more comprehensive version of the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago for VentureHacks, one of the best websites for startups, in which I recommended five New Year’s resolutions for entrepreneurs. Indeed, as I noted in that post, during my 15+ years as a corporate lawyer (including nearly eight years at two major law firms New York City), I have seen entrepreneurs make certain fundamental mistakes over and over again in connection with doing deals. So what better way to welcome in the new decade than to provide seven basic tips for entrepreneurs.
(Message to all of my female clients and readers: (i) the term “guys” includes “gals”; and (ii) in tip #6, you can decide what the term “balls” includes.)
Angel Financings: Five Tips for Entrepreneurs – Part 2
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009Introduction
This is part two of my two-part series on angel financings. In part one, I provided the following five tips for entrepreneurs: (i) push for the issuance of convertible notes; (ii) understand the key business terms; (iii) diligence the angel(s); (iv) never subject yourself to personal liability; and (v) comply with applicable securities laws. Below are five additional tips for entrepreneurs to help them through the angel financing process. Obviously, this is still a difficult environment in which to raise capital; however, I am confident that 2010 will bring greener pastures.
Techcrunch Gets It Wrong Re Tweetphoto CEO (Plus, Lessons For Entrepreneurs)
Thursday, November 19th, 2009Introduction
Yesterday evening, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch posted an interesting piece entitled “TweetPhoto CEO Says Too Much In Interview, Gets Fired. And That’s Just The Beginning…” (which has been subsequently re-posted throughout the blogosphere). Unfortunately, Arrington has gotten his facts all wrong — at least according to Dan Caulfield, the CEO in question.
Arrington sets forth in his post that Caulfield “apparently said too much in [his podcast] interview [with Frank Peters], disclosing confidential information about partnerships [and] was fired by the company for the transgression.” In the comments section to the post, however, Caulfield denied that there was any connection between his firing and the interview. First, yesterday evening, he noted that: “I conducted this interview on [the] Morning of Nov 9th. It had nothing to do with me leaving the company”; and then, this morning, he added that: “I was terminated a week prior to anyone hearing the interview. Events not connected.” Caulfield also retweeted the TechCrunch link to the post yesterday evening with a “Totally false!” insertion. (more…)
Five Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make in Dealmaking – Part I
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009I’ve been doing deals as a corporate attorney for over 15 years, including nearly eight years in the trenches at two major law firms in New York City; and during that period, I have seen certain mistakes made by entrepreneurs (and inexperienced deal guys) over and over again. The purpose of this post (which is part I of a series) is to discuss the following five basic mistakes made by entrepreneurs in connection with corporate transactions: (1) the failure to diligence the guys on the other side of the table; (2) the failure to build a strong transaction team; (3) the failure to run the negotiations through the lawyers; (4) the failure to check their emotions and to remain disciplined; and (5) blinking first. The video version of this post is set forth immediately below.