Emerging Companies and Startups

• What’s your go to market strategy; who is the customer; who decides whether to buy; will they pay?
• How important is the problem you’re solving; how novel is your solution; how big is the market?
• Who is the competition; how will you differentiate yourself?
• What talent / resources are required to build your solution?
• How credible are your operating and financial plans?
• What financing do you need to pull it off?

Having us help you navigate through these foundational issues is critical to ensuring you position your enterprise to succeed. A clearly developed business model addresses how you will form your company, protect your intellectual property, contract with customers, and raise capital.

• Who has contributed to the idea / what’s their continuing role?
• Has everyone transferred their rights to the idea?
• Is someone going to surface claiming they’re an inventor?
• Do you understand that not all founders are created equal, and they shouldn’t start out that way?
• Who should own equity and how should they earn it?
• What happens if a founder leaves or competes?

Nothing scares off investors or customers faster than conflicting claims to intellectual property; sorting through ownership later is distracting and sometimes disastrous. We help our clients see beyond the honeymoon of formation, understand how to design solid ownership structures and team incentives, and address competitive concerns.

• Which entity will provide the greatest flexibility?
• How should I structure ownership, vesting, and transfer rights?
• How should I design governance and decision making?
• What are our confidentiality and competition restrictions?
• Are IP rights clearly owned by our company?
• How should I document these issues?

The reality is that legal ground rules on what works shift as a company matures, adds employees, and receives financing. Your goal is to address what matters now, avoid decisions that will come back to bite you, and ensure that you have the flexibility to meet the next opportunity. While formation documents feel boilerplate, and some people sign them without much thought, informed legal guidance can ensure you avoid mistakes that are hard to fix later.

• Do you appreciate the pitfalls of funding from “Friends, Family and Fools”?
• Have you complied with the securities laws (from crowdfunding to “accredited investors”)?
• Do you really understand how venture capital works?
• Have you developed a business plan designed to raise the right kind of capital?
• Do you understand which rights are negotiable and which not?
• Do you have the right perspective on your exit strategy?

Every entrepreneur experiences a surreal difference when they move from the warm, fuzzy experience of receiving funds from the "Three Fs" to the complex and negotiated world of venture capital. We help companies design their early-stage financings to be flexible for any possible funding to follow. We also understand what rights and protections matter when raising capital, helping you focus on finding the best capital for your company on fair, market-based terms.

• Have you designed and are you implementing an IP protection plan?
• Do you understand how to beta test your product?
• Have you ensured your customers and development partners don’t have claims to your IP?
• How are you approaching developing and executing a product roadmap?
• What’s your strategy to expand your team to gain expertise and experience?
• Have you designed your sales strategy, refined your pricing, and readied your go-to-market approach for scale?

As entrepreneurs focus on running their companies, they often overlook how customers, resellers, development partners, and others can easily entangle their business. Our team helps protect rapidly growing companies from compromising the IP rights they've worked hard to establish and from getting blindsided by competitive and other restrictions. Our advice helps ensure that rapid growth doesn't come at a cost.