Author: Ryan Roberts
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Top 5 Reasons to Incorporate in Delaware
Corporation-friendly law is just one reason your startup should incorporate in Delaware
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How to Know You Have Found a Great Startup Lawyer
A reader emailed me asking: How do I know I have found a great startup lawyer? And judging by this blog’s most frequent search keywords, you may be asking yourself that question, too. Evaluating your startup lawyer (or any lawyer for that matter) can be a difficult task because a lawyer’s work product tends to…
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How to Avoid Being Ripped Off When You Lease Office Space, Part I
A commercial office space lease is a complicated legal document and is usually your startup company’s first big contract. A real estate broker is a great resource to find available office space and determine the market rents. However, your lease’s location and rent provisions account for about only 10% of the language in a commercial…
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The Scoop on Franchise Royalty Fees
Buying into a franchise is one method an entrepreneur might undertake to start his or her own business. Franchises provide the entrepreneur with name-recognition, training and operational support from day one in exchange for an initial franchise fee and continuing franchise royalty payments. While the initial franchise fee is a one-time lump sum payment, the…
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When to Use an Anti-raiding Provision
As an employer, you make countless investments in your employees. Whether your employees realize it or not, you commit major financial resources, time and training to make your staff a company asset. How do you protect your asset from being looted by a former employee? Consider adding an “anti-raiding” clause to your employment agreements.
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Please Do Not Hire Google, Esq.
You have many choices when selecting a lawyer to assist your startup company…us lawyers aren’t exactly an endangered species. But one decision you should never make is to draft legal documents yourself. These documents are just too critical to be drafted and–more importantly–issue spotted without legal education and experience.Because entrepreneurs are resourceful and capital tends…
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Buy-Sell Agreements: The Stock Redemption Plan
In a couple of previous posts, I discussed the value of buy-sell agreements for businesses with 2 or more owners and also one of the two major types of buy-sell agreements, the cross-purchase plan. This post is dedicated to the other main variation of the buy-sell agreement, the stock redemption plan. Under a stock redemption…
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Do You Own Your Website?
Most–if not all–entrepreneurs know that their website plays a vital role in the marketing and branding of their startup company. But do most entrepreneurs understand what they are really paying for when they hire someone to design and/or host their website? (OK, if you are a tech startup you can skip to my next post.)
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Buy-Sell Agreements: The Cross-Purchase
If you’re choosing between a cross-purchase and an entity redemption buy-sell, here’s the short answer: a cross-purchase works best when you have a small number of owners, relatively stable ownership, and you actually want the surviving owners (not the company) to end up owning more of the business. If you have lots of owners, you…
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Why every business with 2 or more owners needs a buy-sell agreement
A buy-sell agreement is a document that preserves continuity of business ownership when specific events occur, such as death or disability of a business owner. It is a contract between shareholders or business partners concerning the future ownership of the business and can be drafted as part of the company’s shareholder agreement or as a…