Go read Elad Gil’s You Should Read Every Word of Every Legal Doc. Some docs are too long and boilerplate to read, so this is how I read financing docs: Read and understand everything in the term sheet. But when it comes to the closing docs, ask your lawyer to explain all the terms that [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Lawyers'
A list of social startup lawyers
January 19th, 2010 · 42 Comments · Lawyers
Scott Edward Walker’s sponsor post, Top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers, created a lot of awesome discussion about startup lawyers. See the comments to that post and the comments to Bram Cohen’s follow-up, “Lawyers can’t tell you you can’t do something”. Scott’s post also generated a lot of positive comments from lawyers who blog, [...]
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Bram Cohen: "Lawyers can’t tell you you can’t do something"
January 15th, 2010 · 15 Comments · Lawyers
Yesterday, we published Top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers, a sponsor post by Scott Edward Walker. Scott’s a lawyer. First, I thought other lawyers would hate it. I was totally wrong — we got a bunch of nice comments from lawyers like well-known Silicon Valley folks Yokum Taku, Josh King, and Matt Bartus. Second, [...]
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Top 10 reasons why entrepreneurs hate lawyers
January 14th, 2010 · 52 Comments · Entrepreneurs, Lawyers, Sponsor
Thanks to Walker Corporate Law Group, a boutique law firm specializing in the representation of entrepreneurs, for supporting Venture Hacks this month. This post is by Scott Edward Walker, the firm’s founder and CEO. If you like it, check out Scott’s blog and tweets @ScottEdWalker. He’s also writing a new series on VentureBeat: Ask the [...]
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5 New Year's resolutions for closing deals in 2010
January 6th, 2010 · 11 Comments · Closing, Entrepreneurs, Lawyers, Psychology, Reverse Diligence, Sponsor
Thanks to Walker Corporate Law Group, a boutique law firm specializing in the representation of entrepreneurs, for supporting Venture Hacks this month. This post is by Scott Edward Walker, the firm’s founder and CEO. If you like it, check out Scott’s blog and tweets @ScottEdWalker. – Nivi It’s a new year — which means it’s [...]
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Lawyers are referees, not coaches
June 12th, 2008 · 7 Comments · Advisors, Execution, Lawyers
I learned a lot from a recent twitter by Andrew Chen: “Other people teach you the rules of the game. Venture Hacks teaches you how to play it.” First, I learned that lawyers are referees, not coaches. Second, I learned that advisors are the coaches of the startup game. Lawyers teach you the rules of [...]
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Should I give my lawyers equity?
December 30th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Equity, Lawyers
Summary: When lawyers defer their legal fees, they expect equity for the risk of not getting paid. If their risk is low or they’re not deferring fees, you can say no. In any case, offer them the right to invest $25K-$50K in your financing instead of giving them free equity. A reader asks: “I wonder [...]
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Should I pay my investor's legal fees?
December 10th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Lawyers
“C’mon—you have $500M and I am raising $1.5M and you want me to take the first $25K to pay your legal expenses for doing the deal? That’s like your dad giving you your allowance and then asking you to buy him a hot dog. When we were raising money for Flixster I thought that must [...]
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Comments: Startup founders speak
February 28th, 2008 · Comments Off · Comments, Decks, Lawyers
Here are the latest great comments from our readers—please keep ‘em coming! Rob Lord, founder of Songbird (Sequoia Capital), has some ideas for VC Wear t-shirts: “Mo’ money, mo’ board seats. “409a a-okay! “Some of my best friends are EIRs. “Venture debt is a non-starter.” Jonathan Boutelle, founder of SlideShare, suggests using SlideShare to share [...]
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