Blog Archives
Rhetoric has the power to engage or alienate, to enchant or disaffect. Perhaps no better example exists than the term “Corporate Governance.” Even the wonkiest law geeks like me find our eyes glazing over as soon as the term is mentioned. Yet I’ve rarely seen entrepreneurs more fired up than when recounting war stories of startups whose
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A board seat in and of itself has no particular value, and is often something to be *avoided*, rather than sought out. It doesn’t give you more cash compensation, more equity ownership or more direct control over the operating business.
The legal role of the board is to make strategic and corporate-level decisions, hire/fire the CEO, and represent all of
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Due diligence should always be a two-way street. A while back, I published an article on “Startup Due Diligence Is Not a Mysterious Black Art,” describing what investors do to validate your startup before they invest. Here is the inverse, sometimes called reverse due diligence, describing what you should do to validate your investor before signing up for an equity
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Silicon Valley is a very special place – the nucleus of high-growth, high technology entrepreneurship in the US, indeed, in the world. The Valley produces world-class entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and successful high-tech companies – all growing and creating jobs on one relatively small peninsula. The Valley has been a unique place for over half a century. It hosts
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In Part I, I gave a quick summary of the who, when and why of forming and documenting a new startup company. This week we’ll delve into what, exactly, is necessary or desirable to lay a solid legal foundation for a startup to build upon.
Sure, you want investors. But sometimes the outsiders most capable of helping your business are those who invest time, not money. And I don’t mean because they lend a credible name to an investor pitch: way too many entrepreneurs look at names on Advisory Board as just a way to expedite a raise. If that’s all you really expect of
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