Cap Table Math for Startup Founders
November 07,2018
“We want to give Barbara 4% of the company. How many shares is that?” I get questions like that frequently, and once you understand the math, the solution is pretty simple. Hey, I’m a lawyer, and I can understand the math. If you are going to run a successful startup, you need to master your […]
New Exemption for Sales of Restricted Stock
December 30,2015
President Obama signed legislation this month that creates a new, explicit exemption for private resales of restricted and control securities. The legislation, contained in Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (the FAST Act), will make it easier for the holders of restricted stock to cash out their holdings, provided they sell only to accredited investors. Here […]
Ten Common Startup Mistakes – Part 1
June 13,2014
Today seems like a good day to tie together a number of subjects I’ve written about in the past, as a list of the Ten Biggest Legal Mistakes Startups Make. Here are the first five: Number 1 – Choosing the Wrong Form of Entity All too often, I encounter startup founders and would-be founders that […]
Anatomy of a Term Sheet 8 — Anti-Dilution Protection
April 15,2014
Welcome back to our Anatomy of a Term Sheet series. We are taking the model Series A term sheet from the NVCA, and analyzing the various terms in depth. The goal is to give startup founders a solid understanding of the complex provisions of the term sheet. We have had 7 installments so far, covering topics […]
Startup Checklist
April 01,2014
In previous posts, I have provided a lot of information on various aspects of getting a startup company established. I thought it would be useful to put a lot of that information in one post, as a startup checklist. So here we go… 1. Review your employment agreement – before doing any substantial development work, […]