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.”
What is founders’ preferred stock? Founders’ preferred stock (also called series FF preferred stock) addresses certain tax and accounting issues that can arise when founders decide to get early liquidity by selling shares of their stock to investors at the same price as other preferred stock sold […]
As outside counsel to thousands of VC-backed startups, we are often asked the same questions about what startups need to do after raising their first round of VC financing. Here is a quick and dirty list of those next steps. The action items below are described in […]
Board meetings are your opportunity to check in with and give an update to your bosses and get feedback and guidance from the experienced members of your board. It is common for VC-backed startups to have four to six board meetings per year, though this frequency can […]
While your financing agreements might have other requirements, below is a nonexhaustive list of the types of corporate decisions that typically require board and/or stockholder approval: Board Approval Is Required to: Stockholder Approval Is Required to: Amend the charter or bylaws. Approve significant corporate transactions (e.g., sale […]
