Starting a business is an exciting endeavor, whether its your first-time or a you’re a serial entrepreneur. But finding investors and acquiring capital for your startup can be challenging. In today’s highly competitive environment, an innovative idea is seldom enough to attract investors. Your business pitch, corporate documents, and investor proposals need to be done …
By Amy W. Riedel As many of you may know, Washington State’s governor, Jay Inslee, signed the Washington State Jobs Act on March 28, 2014. Our very own Peter J. Smith blogged about this development last spring. By enabling crowdfunding on the state level, Washington State is providing a more immediate solution for entrepreneurs and …
Equity Crowdfunding in Washington: The New Frontier in Venture Capital? Read More »
By Peter J. Smith On April 5, 2012, President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law. Among other provisions, the JOBS Act aimed to permit unaccredited investors (think the average Joe) an opportunity to invest a limited amount of capital in businesses. Without the JOBS Act, it is nearly impossible to raise money from average …
Equity Crowdfunding (almost) Available in Washington State! Read More »
In this four part series, we’re discussing how to increase the value of your company by better quantifying and protecting your company’s intellectual property rights. An investor or prospective buyer (or anyone else interested in your company’s true value) will inevitably ask a simple question: what’s to stop a third party from simply copying …
Making your intangibles, tangible. Part 1: Copyrights. Read More »
There is lots of movement in the social impact investment space lately it seems. Yesterday on Businessweek.com there was an interesting piece on Patagonia, California’s first Benefit Corporation, and its announcement of the creation of an in house venture fund aimed at startups looking to make a positive social impact in these distinct areas: clothing, …
The concept of crowdfunding is very intriguing to me. The idea that a young company could utilize a tool such as Kickstarter to fund a new venture, thus avoiding the costly and difficult prospect of acquiring traditional venture capital, is exciting. Indeed sites that help small businesses acquire funding have started to carve out a …
You want to make a change with your new business venture and you’re ready to file the necessary paper work to form a legal structure, but what type of legal structure should you form? Because your idea combines for-profit considerations and nonprofit motives, you’re a little confused about whether you should form a nonprofit, a …
Here’s a question I often get: should I use an attorney when first form my company, or should I go with a web-based service, or should I do it myself? Typically, I’d recommend that you use an attorney. Web-based products tend to shoehorn young companies into a corporate structure that doesn’t make sense and they …
You’re fed up. There’s a social problem that you can’t stand. It seems imminently solvable if only someone would take the initiative to get it done. So you’ve made up your mind: you’re going to solve this problem by starting a business. You’ll immediately face an important decision. Is your business going to be a …
Mission and Market, the First Two Considerations for a Start-up Social Venture Read More »
For Companies seeking to raise seed capital, or going out for investor financing, it is important to make sure your Executive Summary is well put together Executive Summaries are documented companies use when they begin to try to raise money and are used whether a company is pursuing early-stage start-up financing or later capital infusion. …
Trying to Raise Capital? Seven Things Every Executive Summary Should Include Read More »