Bang Ventures, an investment firm focused on early stage emerging tech companies, is holding a startup funding contest that will provide 3 winners with financing, program development, mentoring, office space, legal, accounting, and marketing support, as well as $15,000 to live and work in Cambridge for about 3 months. You
As a former Securities and Exchange Commission legal clerk and a current Apple fanatic, the following story is of high interest: Steve Jobs subpoenaed in backdating case September 20 2007: 5:27 PM EDT SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange
1. Don’t form an LLC or incorporate. Make sure you and your partner have all the personal liability legally possible. 2. Don’t have any difficult conversations with your partner. Leave important global issues with your partner unaddressed so that you can fight over them later when you have less time
The problem of motivating and retaining key employees without giving away your company’s equity can be solved by the use of a phantom stock plan. Many company owners are hesitant to provide key employees with an actual company ownership interest. Such an ownership interest would likely entitle key employees to
You need to customize your articles of incorporation and corporate bylaws if you are serious about doing things the right way at your startup company. But be careful how you customize these important startup documents. Don’t fall into a common trap where you think you are customizing your startup documents,
Before I get into nerdy blog statistics, I want to thank each and every one of you that has visited The Startup Lawyer. You are my “early adopters” and I’m not going to sell you out like Apple did its initial iPhone purchasers. If you can’t tell, I’m awaiting instructions
Some startup company founders are determined to raise cash from day one. Of course, some startup companies will only experience day one if they raise capital and thus have no choice but to put their best foot forward with investors. Other startup founders rank raising cash somewhere between death and
If you can’t self-fund your startup company and must take on investors, keep the number of your investors as low as possible. A low number of investors will reduce your startup company’s transaction costs and headaches associated with raising funds. I’d rather my client raise $90k from one investor than
Here’s a short Labor Day Weekend themed post. Check out the following links regarding United States Labor Law: United States Department of Labor Compliance Assistance Policy Fair Labor Standards Act Family and Medical Leave Act Employee Retirement Income Security Act Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act The links provided cover
Today I’ll get right to it: You need to have good communication with your partner from the start or else you’ll fumble your initial corporate documents. For example, if a multiple-owner corporation’s bylaws are less than 7 pages, that tells me the corporation’s co-founders did not have enough discussion about
