Founders Agreements

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Whether you’re starting a company with your best friend or a few guys you met at a coffee house, you can’t predict how the relationship among Founders will change over time. Many companies (and friendships) have been ruined because a difficult situation arose and the Founders could not agree on how to resolve it, so [...]

Legal Basics: The Corporate Charter and Bylaws

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

In many of our  posts we presume the reader has at least a passing familiarity with basic legal concepts, so periodically we like to take time to explain some of our legalese. This post introduces the two documents that govern the operations of most corporations: the Charter and the Bylaws.
The Charter is the document filed [...]

Financing Your Business: Raising Capital Under Regulation D

Monday, July 6th, 2009

Anytime a privately-held company issues securities – to investors in a financing, to employees as compensation, or for any other reason – the issuer must be able to point to an applicable exemption from the general requirement that all issuances of securities be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). When raising capital from [...]

Raising Cash from Friends, Family and Accredited Investors

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

With venture capital and angel financing harder to come by right now, it is tempting to ask friends and family to invest a little seed capital to keep your business running until institutional investors loosen their purse strings. Proceed with caution! Selling shares to friends and family may seem like a simple proposition – after [...]

Choosing the Best Form of Entity for Your New Company

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

For many entrepreneurs, their first experience with corporate law occurs when they decide to organize their fledgling business into one of the several forms of business entities permitted by law in most states. For the first time business owner, the options presented by legal counsel can be confusing, in part because the differences among some [...]

How to Get More Bang for Your Buck: Keep your lawyer better informed

Monday, May 11th, 2009

It has been our experience that some clients seem to believe that the best way to get the most out of their lawyers is to only call them when it is absolutely necessary, and then pressure them to get the requested work done as quickly as possible. In fact, in the long run you will [...]