Start-up

uSAOver the last few months I have had the chance to speak to entrepreneurs from Brazil, China, Estonia, France, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Norway, Singapore and Ukraine seeking to operate and solicit investment here in the U.S.  As an attorney, I’m expected to focus on best legal practices.  They’re indeed important, but perhaps not worth quite so much energy if the company isn’t on a course to succeed as a business.

Among my first questions, I’m curious to know what a company has, why it’s great, who’s willing to pay, and how much.  Then, I explore other challenges facing the business.

For start-up companies that still want to talk, here’s my simplified rundown of business and legal items (for information purposes only, not legal advice):Continue Reading U.S. Market Entry Top 10

The SEC has adopted new rules which would permit companies to offer and sell securities through online crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital by monetary contributions from a large number of people, usually through the Internet. The new rules will allow small businesses and entrepreneurs to more easily raise capital, and will permit average citizens to invest in startups and early stage businesses. Companies are no longer required to offer securities only to accredited investors; now, anyone can participate in an equity offering, subject to certain investment limits. The new rules were enabled by the 2012 JOBS Act, which created an exemption to the existing securities laws to make equity crowdfunding possible. The SEC has been working on crafting new rules since that time. (These new crowdfunding rules should not be confused with, and do not replace, other rules adopted pursuant to the JOBS Act several years ago that expanded the ability of issuers to raise capital using Rule 506 0f Regulation D.)
Continue Reading SEC Permits Companies to Sell Securities Through Crowdfunding

International law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP represented client Vizo Inc. in its recent round of startup financing. Vizo Inc. develops and operates the “Vizo” mobile news application, delivering curated summaries of trending news stories to users, accessed through visual headlines, several times per day. The transaction provided Vizo with approximately $750,000 in funding, which it used to launch the Vizo application Sept. 28, 2015, on mobile devices.

Greenberg Traurig’s northern Virginia team, led by Corporate & Securities Practice Shareholder Scott Meza along with Associate Ryan P. Kelley, advised Vizo on the structure and terms of the transaction and assisted in negotiations with investors, many of whom were returning to Vizo after making initial seed investments in 2014.Continue Reading Greenberg Traurig Represents Vizo, Inc. in its Startup Financing

It’s not where the Sox play ball.  It’s home to the world’s largest accelerator, MassChallenge, where 128 start-up businesses from around the world are polishing their plans and getting mentored in hopes of winning money or landing that critical investor audience.

I just finished leading my third program on how to pitch.  The finalists are far enough along that they no longer get allowances for unknowns and the chance to engage a listener with information they only hope to hone.  They’ve done enough homework to know their team needs, round out their data, show they’ve tapped the right market, trot out validating customers, or boast a board of advisers.  Yet even the most brilliant entrepreneur can get caught in the headlights.

Here are the six tips that the companies I’m coaching will hear from me in the coming weeks:
Continue Reading Pitch Season in South Boston

A solar water heater on every Israeli rooftop

Israel is a garden of inventiveness and Israelis have a strong tradition of contributing to technology and life sciences. Breathing the innovation when I lived there, I was privileged to test PrimeSense’s 3D camera, help bring Notal Vision’s tool to gauge macular degeneration to the United States, deliver a turn-key VoIP network in Nigeria and Zambia on behalf of VocalTec, license ecommerce and security software to dozens of Fortune 100 companies, watch knee surgery with miraculous tissue-repairing Regentis hydrogel, play with a gear box created from an Objet (now Stratasys) 3D printer, and negotiate sponsored research, patent licenses and clinical trials on behalf of emerging pharmaceutical companies.

Figuring out what gives rise to the “start-up nation” character, with wildly disproportionate foreign direct investment and numbers of translated books, cited academics, filed patents, Nasdaq companies, successful exits, and tuneful children’s songs, is a pervasive new-age question. Many answers have been floated, including its world-class research institutions, the very first technology transfer offices for commercialization of academic R&D, raw skills honed in one of the best-trained and most-sophisticated militaries, a culture of questioning, and a flood of ex-Soviet engineering talent over three decades. Naturally one can’t discount that there are real issues to be addressed too. Israelis have done it — from discerning security risks through synthesis of big data to making the desert bloom with fruit, vegetables, fish, and minerals.
Continue Reading Ingenuity in Israel’s Water

1.      Begin with a Compelling Introduction

  • Get investors excited
  • Include your strongest points to demonstrate credibility
  • Make sure they understand what you do

2.      Address Key Issues in a Clear and Convincing Way

  • The BIG problem your product will solve
  • What is unique about your product or service
  • Why your team is the most qualified to do this
  • How you will sell (or get to market)
  • Why you are better than the competition
  • How you will make the investors a bunch of money

Continue Reading A Brief Guide to Investor Presentations