We have covered in past FTTWs how to value your startup and how much capital to raise. Once your startup decides to pursue equity financing, you should start to prepare for the investor due diligence process. On the business side, you will need to prepare a business plan and should take steps such as obtaining management references, interviews and background reviews, customer/user references, technical/product reviews, financial statements and business model reviews.
On Wednesday, June 26th, Perkins Coie’s Palo Alto office hosted the startupPerColator event, “What Every Startup Needs to Know.” Lowell Ness, a Perkins Coie partner in the Emerging Companies & Venture Capital (ECVC) practice, moderated a panel which included Herb Stephens of NueHealth, Thomas Huot of VantagePoint Capital, Jennifer Jones of Jennifer Jones and Partners, Yuri Rabinovich of Start-up Monthly, and Olga Rodstein of Shutterfly.
The “Series A Crunch,” which is the significant decline in the number of startup companies per quarter that are completing their first equity financing, appears to be deepening.
Lawyers will tell you it’s important to incorporate your company as soon as you possibly can to avoid personal liability and to settle all outstanding matters among the founders. That’s good advice, but the place to start is with a Term Sheet for the incorporation.
On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (aka the JOBS Act), which included the cleverly titled Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act, or "CROWDFUND Act." The CROWDFUND Act established a securities law exemption (codified at Section 4(a)(6) of the Securities Act) allowing startups to raise funds under conditions that would have previously been considered a general solicitation.
On Thursday, April 4th, Perkins Coie’s Palo Alto office hosted the startupPerColator Series event, “Seed Investments: How to Be Attractive to Early Stage Investors and the "Right" Seed Investment Structure for You.”
Summer is often the season when employers consider hiring interns, but there is never a wrong time to brush up on the wage-and-hour laws surrounding paid and unpaid interns. Startup companies may view an internship program as an opportunity to hire students and develop unpaid internship programs. […]
Congratulations! After months of networking, pitch meetings, phone calls, and negotiations, you’ve finally signed a term sheet for your company’s first round of venture financing. What you face next could be one of the biggest hurdles to successfully closing your round—the due diligence process. Read on for […]
October 17, 2023 BBG Ventures & Perkins Coie co-hosted a Term Sheet Tear Down Happy Hour during NY Tech Week, teaching women and diverse founders the intricacies of term sheet negotiation and “founder-friendly terms.” The interactive conversation with BBGV Principal Claire Biernacki and Perkins Coie Counsel Yashreeka […]
“Dead equity” refers to company stock owned by individuals and entities no longer contributing to the company. In general, there are two types of dead equity seen on emerging company cap tables: Departed founders/employees. A co-founder or early employee leaves a company or no longer significantly contributes […]
