Legal Services for Startups & Savvy Businesses in Colorado
I’ve found that while entrepreneurs have an excellent sense of the law when it comes to term sheets and venture deals, they have a much more limited understanding of securities laws. What’s worse, many lawyers I’ve talked to aren’t aware of the details of Colorado’s securities laws, either. Most competent attorneys know about the basics […]
The type of investors you have drastically changes what you need to do to raise capital, the risks your company will incur, and how much it all costs. Understanding the difference will save you money and a lot of wasted energy. This effect is so drastic that—depending on the amount collected from an unsophisticated, or […]
Businesses do not decide whether a person is an independent contractor or an employee. Whether a person is an employee or an independent contractor is a legal question—based upon how a person interacts with your company, performs work, gets paid, and other factors. And unfortunately, there is no clear-cut test on what determinates whether a […]
I once heard a mentor at an accelerator say, “NDAs are worthless and if you see a founder trying to get someone to sign an NDA, it’s a clear signal that they’re a startup amateur. Ideas are worthless. I should be able to tell everyone in the world my idea, and if someone beats me […]
The first thing to remember when you’ve received a cease and desist letter, or any other threatening letter from a lawyer: Don’t panic. You’ve developed your business to the point that you’ve ended up on someone’s radar. These things happen. The important thing now is to weigh your options and figure out how to respond. […]
In business negotiations, it’s critical to develop a reputation as someone who will cooperate and get things done. But business is competitive and occasionally aggressive, and there’s a fine line between having a desire to cooperate and ending up a pushover to more aggressive competitors. So where does one strike a balance between the need […]
[This is a parody inspired by Robert Pirsig’s wonderful classic, from the perspective of a man that’s seen a lot of startups come and go, some succeeding and some failing. For the real thing, please go to Amazon and purchase Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.] I can see on my iPhone, without taking […]
From startups to major corporations, equity awards can be a great way to attract and maintain a talented workforce. There are a variety of ways a company can transfer partial ownership to its employees—but not every way is equal. In fact, some equity transfers can actually end up being very costly for employees, if not […]
Our litigation clients range from pushing for litigation to tactfully trying to avoid it. But there is one thing they all have in common: they’d rather not have to deal with the situation that has brought them to litigation. Litigation is a bit like an adult version of a grade school fight—if you can walk […]
The number one reason that most startups never succeed is that they fail to recognize that the basic laws of business physics also apply to them. Whether as a startup or mature business, sooner or later you have to do a few basic things: You have to get clients or customers, you have to make […]