Author: Ryan Roberts
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A “Clean Cap Table” Doesn’t Mean What You Think
If you’re fundraising and someone tells you to “clean up your cap table,” they usually don’t mean “have fewer stockholders.” They mean: make your ownership record reliable, documentable, and free of surprises. That means no missing signatures, no mystery SAFEs, no side letters you forgot about, and no equity you can’t actually prove. This matters…
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Crosby.AI and the (Possible) Return of the Two-Entity Structured “Law Firm of the Future”
Legal tech writing loves a good demo: instant redlines, smarter clause suggestions, fewer 2 a.m. deal scrambles, cheaper lawyer fees. But “AI-native” legal service providers revive an older, nerdier question: corporate structure. When a company calls itself an AI-powered law firm, is it one entity, two entities, or something in between? And if the answer…
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When to Say No to Investment Money
If you’re raising money for a startup, the short answer is this: you should say no when the capital comes with terms, timelines, or people that predictably and materially reduce your options to build, to raise the next round, or to sell the company later. You’ll hear some version of “lawyers kill deals” any time a…
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409A Valuations: Why They Exist and What They’re Not
409A Valuations are Safe Harbors for Startup Companies
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What an LOI Actually Does (and What It Doesn’t) in a Startup Acquisition
If you’re selling your startup, the letter of intent (LOI) feels like a finish line. It’s not. The short answer is this: an LOI usually sets the economic headline and the deal process—but it does not lock in the outcome. It gives structure and momentum to an acquisition, but very little legal certainty. That gap between…
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When a Founder Is Also a Professor: Customizing a Confidential Information and Inventions Assignment Without Tripping Over University Rules
If you’re a startup founder who’s also a professor at a university (or several), a standard confidential information and inventions assignment agreement—your CIIAA—can quietly become one of the riskiest documents in your early legal stack. The short answer is simple: you almost never want to sign a plain‑vanilla CIIAA without customization if you hold an…
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Par Value for Startup Stock: What It Is, What to Set It At, and Why It Matters
Par value is one of those startup law concepts that feels like it should matter a lot—until you see how it actually shows up in real venture deals. Here’s the short answer: par value is a legal minimum price for stock, not a valuation, and for most early‑stage startups, it’s a formality you set low and move on…
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Multiple Classes of Common Stock: Power, Perception, and Practical Limits
Multiple classes of common stock often surface when founders start thinking seriously about control. This article explains how Class A and Class B structures work, how investors view them, and when they actually affect outcomes.
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AI Didn’t Kill Startup Lawyers. It Just Gave Everyone Better Tools.
“It’s always been difficult to make a good record. To be perfectly honest with you, it’s really about the person that’s pushing the buttons. No matter what type of equipment you have, you still have to have a certain talent to be able to make a good record. Everything that I used to do is…