Legal Land Mines: Raising Capital

The document discusses various types of early stage financings for startups, including bootstrapping, founder preferred shares, friends and family funding, customer funding, convertible debt/equity, SAFE instruments, incubators, angel investments, seed rounds, and Series A venture rounds. It provides brief descriptions of each type of financing, highlighting key elements like size, source of funding, security type used, valuation requirements, control rights implications, and liquidation preferences.

Vesting provisions are typically put in place for founders and employees to incentivize them to remain with the company over time. With vesting, the shares/options are earned gradually, such as over a 4 year period, with a 1 year cliff. This helps ensure that the founders and key employees stay long enough to see the business grow and be valuable, rather than leaving shortly after joining. It also addresses the risk of multiple founders by making their ownership contingent on long-term service.

Since 2015, Scott Perlov has worked as an attorney at Brian Cave, LLP in Boulder, Colorado. Scott Perlov is well-versed in the ins and outs of venture capital and angel investor financing. Venture capital is a form of funding that is normally given to startups in exchange for equity in the business. This type of funding has become more popular as startups can struggle with bank loans and debt financing. Startups can focus on delivering products and reinvesting profits into the company instead of paying off debts. Companies of all sizes can take advantage of venture capital. It is usually handed out during venture rounds, which translate to installment payments of the capital. Each round of financing has expectations for company growth, and the amount being funded typically grows in each round. Firms that consist of venture capitalists and general partners decide on which companies to invest in, with the general partners normally having the final say. The typical lifespan of a venture capital investment is 10 years. Venture capital firms go through initial investment, growth, and follow-on investment, and exit phases accordingly.

BizON had the honour of sponsoring the Business Transition Forum! We would like to share some valuable information with our audience from the forum in case you did not have the opportunity to attend!

Hedblom Capital is a Swiss investment bank that focuses on sustainable and socially responsible investment opportunities in Latin America. They provide strategic financial advisory and funding services to small and mid-sized companies in industries like clean tech, healthcare, green housing, food and agriculture. Some of their representative clients in 2015 included companies in the agriculture, food and beverage, and dairy sectors.

M 12/14 Startup Equitable Equity: Carving Up the Ownership Pie http://www.meetup.com/Silicon-Valley-Startup-Idea-to-IPO/events/226385573/

This document provides an overview and agenda for a presentation on key back office areas of focus for companies in the winter 2014 cohort. The presentation covers compensation methods and their SRED implications, the importance of having a clear capitalization table, sales tax registration requirements, factors to consider for SR&ED claims including eligible expenditures and changes to the program, and potential US tax implications depending on business activities across the border. The conclusion emphasizes planning compensation, clarifying capital structure, sales tax compliance, vetting SR&ED consultants, and consulting a specialist if engaging with the US market.

This document discusses 15 key legal concepts for startups presented at a lunch and learn session by a law firm. It introduces the firm's lawyers and paralegals and their experience. It then covers various legal topics startups should be aware of, including how to organize legal needs, issues around corporate structure, raising capital through equity or debt, protecting intellectual property, and types of business agreements. The presentation aims to help startups understand important legal issues to consider as they grow their business.

This document provides an overview of venture capital, including: - The key difference between startups and SMEs, and between private equity and venture capital - What venture capital is and examples of major investments like Accel Partners in Facebook - The premise of venture capital being high risk but also high reward - A brief history of venture capital and its growth in Australia - How venture capital funds are typically structured and the types of venture capital - Current areas of interest for venture capital like fintech, AI, and blockchain - The key decision criteria venture capitalists examine like metrics, business dynamics, deal terms, and team

Gulfstream Capital Advisors is an investment bank focused on start-up, early stage, and sub-mid market companies. It was founded in 1985 and has offices in South Florida. Gulfstream provides services like private capital raising, financial and strategic advisory, and research reports. It focuses on industries like energy, technology, healthcare, and manufacturing. Gulfstream is led by partners with over 30 years of experience in investment banking and capital raising.

Time to Grasp the Legal Nettles – • Are you and your fellow shareholders afraid to ask yourselves the “what ifs”? • Is your key employee an agent’s phone call away from leaving the building? • Are you afraid to look at your best customer’s terms of purchase for fear of what you’ll discover? If so, it’s time to grasp the nettle and think on how to deal with these (and other) business challenges in 2017.

by David Ambler & Seth Gottlieb, Cooley This session is a must-attend for any early stage startup looking to raise capital, and wanting to learn more about the various forms of capital and when to use them. Join David Ambler, a corporate attorney at Cooley LLP, as he covers startup financing strategies, including debt and equity, common financing terminology, and best practices for fund raising.