I previously mentioned that convertible debt is a good way to raise capital for most startups. The main reason why convertible debt is beneficial for startups is that it delays coming up with a valuation figure at the seed stage–the valuation conundrum is essentially punted to the Series A (or
RIP Good Times. Get rid of your cars. This recent wave of “learn to live with less” advice is nothing new to those in startups. In fact, startups just hope for the day they can have the option to live with a little more. But there are a lot of
There’s a lot of talk about down rounds now in the venture capital industry since valuations are down. So I suspect a lot of venture-backed companies are dusting off their Series A Preferred Share Agreements and taking a look at the anti-dilution provisions held by their investor(s). But should your
Selecting the optimal structure when raising capital for your startup can be a challenging task. When clients ask me for my recommendation, I find myself recommending the convertible debt financing route more often than traditional equity financing (i.e., I’ll give you $100k for 20% of your company’s stock). So what
I’m probably not qualified to be telling you about software for your startup, but I wanted to mention that Microsoft is offering free software to qualified startup companies through its BizSpark Program. A few weeks ago, I had a chat with Jared Bienz with Microsoft about the BizSpark Program. It
I got a few compliments on my new design, but the response was overwhelmingly negative. So back to the old design it is. I’ll probably still do some tweaking to the sidebar area of this blog. Thanks to all of those that responded either way via IM, email, comments, and
I decided to change my blog theme, as I felt the last theme had too much clutter. The rotating images on the homepage was nice, but I didn’t like how long it took to load. The best part about changing the theme is that I got rid of that picture
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
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
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
