Startup Lawyer

Tag: raising capital

  • Keeping a Seed Financing Round Open

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    Ryan Roberts
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    Startups don’t want to wait until every investor is ready before closing on a seed financing round. First, the roster of investors will not be identified and/or cutting checks on the same day. Second, what startup wants to wait on cash? Therefore, most seed financings allow for an initial close (i.e., that first investor check)…

  • If I Launched a Startup

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    Ryan Roberts
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    Here’s what I’d do in the beginning: Incorporation (1) Entity Choice: Corporation or Corporation (2) State of Incorporation: Delaware (3) Authorized Shares in Charter: 10,000,000 Shares (4) Type of Shares: Common Stock (5) Par Value of Common: $0.0001 (6) Initial Founders Issuance: 8,000,000 Shares (7) Founders Equity Split: Depends on the Team, But Quickly and…

  • Never Ever Ever Ever Pay to Pitch

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    Ryan Roberts
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    Your startup should never have to pay $$$ to pitch to potential investors. Period. Jason Calacanis authored an epic post on the topic of paying to pitch as well. It’s a great read. Just remember that no matter how hard it is to source funds, your startup should never have to cough up its own…

  • Should Your Startup Hire a Finder?

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    Ryan Roberts
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    Raising capital is not easy. While startup entrepreneurs usually have a strong network of people within their own industry, many entrepreneurs lack contacts at venture capital firms and other angel groups. And even if the entrepreneur knows about such funding sources, it’s difficult to get solid intros to such people. Sometimes startups will run into…

  • Soliciting Investors: One Thing Twitter Should Never Be Used For

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    Ryan Roberts
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    I saw this TechCrunch article in my RSS reader and thought I would pass it on to you: Social Median Disregards 60 Years of Securities Regulations With Sale of Stock on Twitter I’m a new user of Twitter and I believe it can be used for a lot of things. Soliciting Investors? Not one of…

  • Still a Glitch with the Y Combinator Angel Funding Legal Documents

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    Ryan Roberts
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    I mentioned last week that Y Combinator was open sourcing their angel funding legal documents. I also noted that soon after the documents were made public, people (myself included) received this error message visiting the documents’ URL: Sorry, there’s a glitch with the documents and we had to take them down. We hope to have…

  • Y Combinator Open Sources Funding Documents…Venture Lawyers Leave Office Early

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    Ryan Roberts
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    Well I guess that’s it folks. I had a fun ride. Y Combinator has “open sourced” legal documents they provide to their startups seeking funding. The documents were created by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Y Combinator’s law firm. But as of 7:39PST on August 13, there is a “glitch” with the link to the…