Author: Ryan Roberts
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Venture Capitalists Want to Skip 2009
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. I took a look at the survey and found some interesting results: 92%…
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How to Get Served on Facebook
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. Service of…
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Guy Kawasaki on NDAs
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.” And yesterday, Guy Kawasaki echoed my NDA-VC sentiments in “The…
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Preferred Stock: Where “F” in a Class Can Equal Success
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. Instead, the startup could be gaining momentum and approaching positive cash flow…but just needs one more round…
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I Got a Term Sheet, Now What?
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. And you also have to…
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Election Calls Turn to Capital Calls
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. VentureBeat and Private Equity Hub have put out articles this…
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7 Legal Documents for Your Tech Startup
When launching a startup, you want to make and keep 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.…
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Don’t Go Crazy with Complex Rounds of Seed Funding
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 startup simply because the startup’s…
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You Can’t Hit a Home Run Unless You Step Up to the Plate
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. But rather than hear it from me, hear…
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Par Value for a Startup Company’s Stock
Par value is the minimum price that a corporation can issue its shares. In the US, par value was created during the time of the great depression in order to ensure a shares could not be sold under a certain price. Today, that concept is somewhat archaic, but it still plays an important role and…