Author: Ryan Roberts
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The Superbowl Example of “Stay Ready”
Back in January, I wrote a post about how entrepreneurs should always stay ready for potential opportunities (rather than get ready once they pinpoint one). Well, today seems like the appropriate day to provide a real-world example of staying ready. I met Jared Retkofsky in the fall of 2008. Jared is the long snapper for…
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Delaware is Suffering: Will Incorporation Fees Increase?
I’ve blogged before about the benefits of incorporating in Delaware. Thus, I was somewhat shocked to see the Deal Journal blog about how Delaware is becoming another victim of the credit crunch. I never thought about how much revenue Delaware receives from its Division of Corporations, but the article contained this statistic: Delaware’s Division of…
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Skip the LLC
“My startup will start out as an LLC and then change to a corporation when/if…” This quote, or similar derivation, is a common fact pattern I hear from new clients or general inquiries. I think most entrepreneurs are attracted to the LLC because they hear it is “simple” or “easily-managed” or “flexible.” Sure, LLCs are…
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The Billable Hour is Dying…Slowly
The billable hour. Ugh. I don’t like it, and I’m pretty sure you don’t like it either. The good news is that the bandwagon for murdering the billable hour is gaining more members every week. I came across an article about how a partner at a very large firm just penned an anti-billable hour op-ed…
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Selling Your Startup with Convertible Debt
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). But what…
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How Will You Bootstrap in 2009?
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 that forgot (or never…
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Don’t Hate On Your VC For Exercising Anti-Dilution Provisions
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). But should your founding team be offended if…
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The Basics of Convertible Debt Financing
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.e., I’ll give you $100k for 20% of your company’s stock). So what is convertible debt? Convertible debt…