Five-minute general counsel: should I be a social enterprise?

By Rick Colosimo / September 9, 2010 /

Here’s a question on quasi-nonprofits that I’ve been hearing more often: Do I need to have a nonprofit status to become a social entrepreneurial enterprise? I found this LinkedIn question to be interesting for two reasons: first, it’s very related to a nonprofit question I field all the time, and second, I have a current…

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Why you should back away from reverse mergers

By Rick Colosimo / June 18, 2010 /

This LinkedIn question asking about reverse mergers is a question I’ve answered for a lot of entrepreneurs who get pitched by these folks and are invariably misled confused about where, how, and whether this deal brings money into the company. “What is a reverse merger or reverse IPO?” Short answer: “reverse merger” is almost always…

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Getting crowdfunding wrong

By Rick Colosimo / May 28, 2010 /

Here’s a link to a brief article about crowdsourcing as applied to startups. Grade for this article? Nominally 80% for 4 out of 5 right, but the wrong answer on financing can kill a company. This one gets a #FAIL from me. Hearkening back (or forward, since I don’t know if I’ve posted it yet)…

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Why is asking "LLC or Corp?" the wrong question?

By Rick Colosimo / May 2, 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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