Author: Ryan Roberts
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Life is Too Short to Deal with Non-Accredited Investors
Why your startup company should not raise money from non-accredited investors
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What Venture Capital Investors Want in a Term Sheet
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF-7nRnpJfQ&hl 285 234]
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Is a VC About to Steal Your Startup Grant?
Venture Capital Firms. They won’t grant you a meeting. If you do get a meeting they won’t sign your nda. And you’ll be lucky if your startup gets any funding. Making matters worse, they could be about to commandeer federal grant money earmarked for small businesses like your startup. Federal agencies earmark 2.5% of their…
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How Much to Pay Your Startup Lawyer
Think back to the last time you wrote a business plan for a startup. Do you recall your estimated expense for legal fees? $1,000? $10,000? $0? How much to spend on legal fees is a common issue for startup companies with more than one correct answer. However, there are a few factors that suggest your…
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Generate Goodwill Instead of Burning a Bridge
A frequent issue entrepreneurs, myself included, deal with is having to handle negative situations with due care and class so as to not erode startup company goodwill, not to mention other business tangibles and intangibles. You can create goodwill for your startup company many ways. And most are fairly obvious. But truly great entrepreneurs have…
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You’re Nobody Till Somebody Steals Your Startup Idea
Many entrepreneurs worry that someone, whether a potential partner, a VC, or a boogeyman will steal their startup idea. If you are worried about having your startup idea “jacked,” I recommend you take a deep breath and relax a bit–your startup idea isn’t worth that much. Paul Graham, in an essay derived from a talk…
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Startup Lawyer Article Published in the Texas Bar Journal
Just thought I’d mention that the Texas Bar Journal, a monthly publication of the State Bar of Texas, published an article from this blog in its February 2008 issue. The article featured in the technology section is “How to Optimize Your Blog Sale.” You can either read it here at the Startup Lawyer Blog or…
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Don’t Be Coy With a Letter of Intent
I recently worked on a deal where the prospective seller over-strategized the letter of intent. The seller wanted my client to sign a non-binding LOI that contained about half of what should have been included in the letter. It was extremely frustrating and ultimately was a waste of time, because rather than acquiesce to the…
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How Will This Economic Downturn Affect Startups?
As the economic downturn begins to spread from sub-prime borrowing to the current credit contraction (and I’m not ready to say the R-word yet), it seems unlikely that startups will be immune from an economic storm that may be felt internationally and across various asset classes. Fortunately, advances in technology mean that startups can launch…
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How To Handle Intellectual Property When Buying A Business
The business purchaser needs to ascertain if intellectual property rights are needed for the continued operation of the business. Intellectual property rights that are important include trademarks, copyrights, service marks, and trade names. All of these IP rights are assignable. For example, the ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or in part…