Uncategorized
By Ashley Long If you are a startup company, your brand (your trademarks) may be one of your most important items of intellectual property. Protecting your brand through one or more federally registered trademarks is usually a really smart move. For not very much money, you can obtain federal rights
Uncategorized
By Dennis Kasimov and Joe Wallin In the early days of a startup, it is common for founders to not pay themselves any cash compensation. This approach is sometimes also applied to other service providers, who receive just stock option compensation. Despite the prevalence of this practice in the early
Uncategorized
If you are thinking about starting an early stage tech company, one of the first things you will have to figure out is what type of legal entity to form. Fortunately, there are only a few choices available to you. Your choices are basically only 1 of the following 3
Uncategorized
If you are investing in early stage companies, there are certain deal terms you want. Most you probably know already: if it's a round of convertible notes, you want a discount and a cap; if it's a priced round, you want a liquidation preference. Etc. But
Uncategorized
What is Revenue Based Financing? For the most part, early stage company financings fall into two categories: 1. Fixed price financings (e.g., a Series Seed or a Series A Preferred Stock financing); and 2. Non-fixed price financings (e.g., convertible notes, or convertible equity). Fixed price rounds are great
Uncategorized
The 90-day post termination of employment exercise period for stock options is under attack. A lot of companies are moving away from 90 days. You can find a list of them in a GitHub repo maintained by Zach Holman. Zach also has written an impassioned post about this issue. Why
Uncategorized
The staff of the SEC has issued its report on the definition of "accredited investor." It could be what we are looking at is the following: a "super accredited investor" definition (credit to Bill Carleton for coining this term), and the current definition--but if you don&
Startup
Guest Post by the Team at 9Mile Labs When we ventured into the startup accelerator business over three years ago, we knew we were headed into brand new territory. The startup accelerator business model was pioneered in 2005 by Paul Graham at YCombinator (YC) and then subsequently adopted by many
Uncategorized
If you are looking for the complete text of new Section 4(a)(7) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, I have quoted it in full below. You can also find the entire text of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act or the "FAST Act&
Uncategorized
You may not be aware, but the federal securities laws contain two definitions of the term accredited investor. One definition is helpful to startups, and the other is not. The definition of accredited investor that is helpful to startups is found in Regulation D. Rule 506 of Regulation D is
Uncategorized
The idea that you can "test in" to accredited investor status is gaining momentum. Rep. Schweikert (R-Ariz.) has introduced a bill that would do just that. His bill has passed out of the House Financial Services Committee and is apparently headed to the floor of the House. You
Uncategorized
If you are in the process of awarding stock options to employees or service providers, do not forget that you need (among other things) board approval of all stock option grants. This is required by the corporate law of Delaware, Washington, and I imagine almost every state corporate law in