The Heart of Any E-2 Application
An experienced immigration attorney in Mesa, Arizona – where there is a great a deal of immigration activity, as you may imagine – contacted us to assist one of his…
Legal Posts
Licensing Your Intellectual Property for Fun and Profit
You have a brilliant new invention. Congratulations! But now what? In general, you have two choices: you can build a company, or you can license your concept to another company…
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
The Importance of Buy-Sell Agreements A prospective client called recently and asked if we would prepare a valuation on a small, 8-year-old business that has been profitable and provided a…
The Software Patent Problem
I always advise software startups to file patents to protect their “secret sauce” from competitors, and to increase their valuation. The good news is that a patent can scare off…
Five Legal Traps Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid
Although every startup is unique, there are certain common avoidable mistakes that can lead to legal complications which jeopardize the long-term success of the business. I’m not suggesting that every…
Professional Investors Don’t Sign NDAs
Entrepreneurs often get the advice from their lawyers and friends to always get a Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA or CDA) signed before disclosing anything about their new venture. Most investors and…
A Turnaround Might Be Easier than Bankruptcy
If you are just plain tired of working so hard, or your startup is not getting the traction you expected, should you shut down cleanly, or just file for bankruptcy…
How to Survive Investor Due Diligence
If your startup is great enough to get a term sheet from angel investors or a venture capitalist, the next step for the investor is to complete the dreaded due…
Assessing Roles and Assigning Startup Equity
One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate the equity among co-founders. A seemingly easy solution to this problem would be to…
The Nuts and Bolts of Founder’s Stock
In reality, so-called “founder’s” shares are simply common stock, issued at the time of startup incorporation, for a very low price, and normally allocated to the multiple initial players commensurate…