As I play in the startup game longer, a few of my clients have progressed from where they’re not just starting their businesses, but rather selling them as well. It’s fun to see the whole cycle play out – but it’s created a unique set of challenges for them and for me. One of my … Read More
Traditionally, if you want to raise money, you do it in one of two ways: through debt or equity financing. But angel investors who want to lend a new business money at a reasonable interest rate are rare (for good reason), and those who want to do it for a piece of the pie typically … Read More
A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a meetup at Galvanize with a number of other attorneys (signup info for the meetup can be found here). The subject of the meetup was legal issues for crowdfunding and fundraising. We provided background on the new SEC rules for crowdfunding and discussed the ways in which we … Read More
One of the first questions that a startup faces when it begins to look outside the organization to fund itself, is what type of financing to seek. There are some who will argue that one type of financing is inherently superior to the other for startups. But to me that’s kind of like saying that … Read More
The concept behind crowdfunding is simple and perfectly suited to the Internet. Rather than raise a lot of money from a few people, you raise a little from a lot of people. It’s easy and effective. Lots of new businesses have blossomed in catering to this market: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and RocketHub, to name a few. … Read More
I’ve heard some wacky stuff recently from entrepreneurs about term sheets. Some people seem inclined to throw the term around in contexts where it doesn’t belong. It’s a pretty simple concept, so I figured I’d draw up a quick primer to summarize the basics. What is a term sheet? A term sheet is a document … Read More
I’m new to the “startup community,” so I have no personal connection to Aaron Swartz. I’m not close to him or anyone who is close to him. But I follow the twitter feeds of many folks who did know him, and I’ve been following the legal proceedings that have dogged him the last couple of … Read More