May 2013
2 posts
Startup Equity 201: Stock Options →
This class is for entrepreneurs, who want to retain and incentivize the most important engine of company growth — their people. And for employees of high-growth, early-stage companies, who receive stock options as part of their compensation package.
Students will learn the nuts and bolts of Employee Incentive Plan that best serves the interests of founders, investors, and employees....
The Docracy Blog: Guest post: Should you... →
docracy:
A Benefit Corporation is a new type of corporate entity available to businesses choosing to incorporate in California. Inder Comar, a Docracy contributor who represents small businesses and startups there, recently published his sample Articles of Incorporation and the following useful…
April 2013
2 posts
Developer Contracts in the Real World →
docracy:
A handy list of popular contracts for developers, as featured on SitePoint
The Docracy Blog: How to Register a Trademark →
docracy:
First thing, you have to figure out if it makes sense for you to register a trademark, and what is trademarkable. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademarks (USPTO), a trademark is “a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes…
March 2013
2 posts
The Docracy Blog: A legal primer on trademarks:... →
docracy:
This week we’re diving into the world of trademarks thanks to one of our latest lawyer contributors: Jacob Tingen. Jacob is a solo practitioner from Virginia with a very innovative approach to lawyering: his practice is entirely online-based, he self-publishes useful ebooks, and has the …
Docracy’s Term Sheet Guide →
docracy:
We published a really special topic page today: the Term Sheet Guide.
We have many publicly available term sheets on Docracy, including forms from Series Seed, Techstars and Foundry Group. The thing is, a term sheet is a fairly complicated legal affair, and we felt like there was a need for some comprehensive, entrepreneur-friendly explanation. Therefore, we put together this rich,...
February 2013
1 post
The Docracy Blog: Dear App Developers, Time to Get... →
docracy:
Big news for privacy last week: the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) fined Path $800,000 for privacy violations (Path settled the fine after a long FTC investigation started from a post on Hacker News). At the same time they issued a long set of guidelines for pretty much everybody in the…
January 2013
1 post
December 2012
2 posts
The Docracy Blog: What's a Model Release? →
docracy:
Do you take photos? Do you want to sell, publish, and/or use photos? Model releases are useful little documents that allow photographers, publishers and photo users to have more freedom in using or publishing photos. Essentially, if there is a recognizable person in the image, a model…
October 2012
7 posts
The Docracy Blog: Everything you need to know... →
docracy:
Let’s welcome our latest lawyer contributor, the awesome Dave Ugelow! Dave is an expert in Intellectual Property Law and just open-sourced two interesting templates on Docracy: an Independent Contractor Agreement and an Artist/Design License Agreement.
We took a particular…
Recapping Legal Stuff Explained 2.4: Equity...
Thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday for our fourth Legal Stuff Explained session of the year. Bill Carleton, Larry Baker, and David Rose took questions from the audience and spoke on a number of issues in equity crowdfunding and the JOBS Act. It was a very dense and in-depth talk, so we definitely recommend watching the whole thing. Recap and highlights from the panel follow below, but if...
Live Stream of Equity Crowdfunding Dissected -...
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Watchdocracy:
Founding a company is super exciting but there are lots of pitfalls, especially for technical founders. In this video we talk about our experiences all the way from starting at a hackathon to raising money to running a company.
We’re also happy to answer questions or talk about something in more detail. Just post a comment or send us a message and we’ll try to cover it next time.
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September 2012
6 posts
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Legal Issues of Mobile Development Recap
Thank you to all who were able to join us for yesterday’s Legal Stuff Explained. Arina Shulga presented on a range of legal issues surrounding mobile app development, including corporate, employment, and intellectual property law, as well as government regulations. We’re currently preparing a video of Arina’s presentation and we’ll post that soon! Meanwhile, check out the main takeaways below: ...
FTC Guidance on Marketing Apps →
Almost full house today for LSE 2.2: Legal Issues of Mobile Apps! Get in the mood with this blog post by our speaker Arina Shulga!
Registration open for LSE 2.3! Equity Compensation...
Online Ticketing for Legal Stuff Explained 2.3: Equity Compensation Hacks (for founders and startup employees) powered by Eventbrite
Legal Stuff Explained 2.2: Legal Issues of Mobile...
Online Ticketing for Legal Stuff Explained 2.2: Legal Issues of Mobile Development powered by Eventbrite
Legal Stuff Explained is back with version 2.0!
Online Ticketing for Legal Stuff Explained 2.1: Growing and Funding Your Business powered by Eventbrite
July 2012
7 posts
Watchdocracy:
What’s Docracy, in exactly 40 seconds!
Guest post: Beware the elephant in the room - why...
Beware of the elephant in the room!
Starting a company with other founders is like a marriage. At first it’s exciting, sparks are flying and you can only imagine good times ahead. BUT…beware of the elephant in the room! This article addresses how best to protect founders from that elephant. There’s no right or “standard” way for founders to do this since most situations are different based on...
The Docracy Blog: Best practices in web design:... →
docracy:
We often say to designers: get a contract, get paid. Honestly, now that we host an annotated Web Design + Identity Agreement, there are no more excuses. But some professionals really take it to the next level. We asked our users Dalton and Stacey from Raygun design studio how do they use…
Founders' Legal Gym Recap
Take Aways From Wednesday’s Founders’ Legal Gym: Co-Founders’ Agreements and Convertible Note Financing
Thank you to all who were able to join us Wednesday for an in depth look at pre-nupping your relationship with co-founders and an analysis of convertible notes from both an investors and a founders’ perspective. Check out the below take aways from the class and stay...
June 2012
6 posts
Nat Turner: How many co-founders is right? And... →
natsturner:
A couple students starting a company recently asked me if they had too many co-founders and if their equity arrangement made sense. When you’re in college, it’s not too uncommon to have a semi-large group of friends working together on the same project which sometimes leads to a formal company…
Next event: Founders' Legal Gym!
Online event registration for Founders’ Legal Gym: Pre-nups and Prep First Fundraising powered by Eventbrite
New LSE Workshop: Termsheet cage fight!
Event Registration Online for VC vs Startup: Live Term Sheet Negotiation powered by Eventbrite
Help us shape LSE 2.0 - Take this quick survey!
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May 2012
8 posts
Equity Financing 101 tonight!
IF I SAY:
Antidilution
No-shop
Tag Along
Non-participating preferred
Liquidation preference
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS? =======>
FEAR NOT, Zeke is going to explain it all tonight!
Important Announcement: this is the last class of our first series of workshops known as “Legal Stuff Explained”. The response has been amazing and we are already planning LSE 2.0, to take the...
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Sold out again
No spots left for our workshop tonight: “Choosing the right business structure”. Lots of people want to start a company around here!
How to prepare your company for a future sale
Let me write down Josh’s 3 takeaways from yesterday’s class before I forget:
Keep your books in order
Keep your legal stuff in order (e.g. make sure that all IP is assigned to the company, as we learned a few classes ago!)
Start your tax planning well ahead: if Uncle Sam is going to get half your money, is going to feel like:
Ready for tomorrow?
Online Ticketing for Legal Stuff Explained: Exit strategies - selling or closing your business powered by Eventbrite
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April 2012
7 posts
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What's "Art Law"?
Or, in other words: what should creative people know about the law? This is what Ilya and Tudor taught us in their LSE workshop.
Check out the video snippet below (on trademarks!) and don’t miss the traditional “3 takeaways” from the class:
1. Contracts help clarify expectations and relationships. When you collaborate with others on a project, negotiate and sign a written...
Register for next class! →
All remaining classes are also now open for registration! Check the calendar!
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Intellectual Property Law For Small Business &...
It’s so hard to recap this class because it was really good. Sarah Feingold is Etsy’s General Counsel and she really know how to be straight to the point, and use examples to explain abstract legal concepts otherwise hard to grasp.
She used sweet Ring Pops to teach how copyright, trademark and patents work, and how to deal with these biggies in the real world, staying out of trouble.
...
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Online Ticketing for Legal Stuff Explained #4: Intellectual Property Law for Small Businesses powered by Eventbrite
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TLDR
We kicked off our weekly series of legal workshops for entrepreneurs, Legal Stuff Explained, with a session on website Terms of Service, and we’ll be sharing some great tips here, so you don’t feel like the picture below anymore:
Micheline Zamora is a lawyer from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who mainly works with startups. She is an advocate of clear legal language, yet she also understands that...
