Posts tagged as:

law

Crowdfunding a startup: rags or riches?

20 May 2010

Crowd-everything is super hot, and super cool. The vastness of Wikipedia alone is sufficient to teach every one of us that when “crowd” is applied to your field, really neat and seemingly impossible things can happen. To me, “crowd” is just the plural of “open,” as in open data. But crowd doesn’t always work, and [...]

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Why I write

20 May 2010

Many of my readers have seen my “Five-minute General Counsel” blog post series. The idea is to give readers an informed opinion that, while not specific to their situation, highlights some of the major issues involved in various decisions, such as whether to form an LLC or corporation for your tech startup. (Hint: read this [...]

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Why is asking “LLC or Corp?” the wrong question?

2 May 2010

Here’s another LinkedIn-derived question that merits a better answer. The question was essentially whether the fellow with some IP to build a business on should form an LLC or a corporation. In typical LinkedIn fashion, off-the-cuff answers that are specific end up being wrong. In my mind, if someone is asking this question, they either [...]

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Quote: Map v. Territory

13 April 2010

I was in Wikipedia for some reason earlier, and a click or two later, I was reading the entry for Alfred Korzybski, the inventor/founder of general semantics. (I’d had the book on a list of books to read for a reason that has long since escaped me, but it seemed hard to find, and I [...]

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Value-sharing: knowledge leads to questions

27 October 2009

Today I was asked about my recent Five-minute lawyer series of posts. To me, these sorts of posts add lots of value for readers who have these questions at little real detriment to me; after all, I already know the answers to these general questions. Is sharing knowledge a good strategy? I obviously think so, [...]

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Five-minute lawyer: how to plan a nonprofit

25 October 2009

You’ve probably already seen our Five-minute Lawyer post on How to Form a Nonprofit, but sometimes people are at an earlier stage of the process, where they haven’t figured out what they exactly want to do. This process looks a lot like planning a for-profit business in the early stages, but here are a few [...]

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Cause of action website worth copying

14 October 2009

This site, COA.TX, has an incredibly straightforward tagline: Quick Reference for Causes of Action and Affirmative Defenses in Texas. — Caselaw Snippets from Recent Texas Appellate Opinions. Lawyers with a national practice (often driven by national clients) can spend a surprising amount of time pulling specific quotes from the relevant jurisdiction to either get complaints [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: where should I incorporate?

12 October 2009

I regularly answer corporate governance questions on LinkedIn. Where should I incorporate or form my entity? After you’ve decided that it’s in your interest to form an entity of some kind, the next question is where to form that company. Most people know that Delaware is the 800-pound gorilla in this field. Many have also [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: compare ownership structures

12 October 2009

I often get questions asking about entity selection when someone is considering incorporating. Here is a summary of some general ownership structure issues. What do all these entities do? This introduction will make it easier for you to come up with questions that will help you select the best alternative for your specific situation. There [...]

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Five-minute general counsel: incorporate a tech startup

12 October 2009

Another LinkedIn user asked about how to structure a startup that would be a typical VC-funded software company. Here’s my edited answer: As someone who’s represented dozens of startups, closed probably 100 venture deals, and cleaned up too many small companies to count, there is in fact a right way and wrong way to do [...]

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