Comments on: Legal Documentation For Venture Backed Seed Deals

By: Mark Solon

Mark Solon — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:43:10 +0000

Definitely part of the equation in a well run process Milton, good thing for entrepreneurs to ask for from any investor…

By: Milton Carter

Milton Carter — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:32:11 +0000

Just make sure your term sheet discloses everything material that's in your "simplified set of documents"

By: Some Complexities of Venture Capital Seed Investing

Some Complexities of Venture Capital Seed Investing — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:49:22 +0000

[...] Over time, I soured on the “convertible note seed funding” approach. I’ve written about this in the past, but at the minimum I think it misaligns the entrepreneurs and the early stage VC. More importantly, in my experience, it’s a signaling device – the seed VC isn’t as committed in a convertible note round as they are when they price a seed round and do it as a typical VC preferred financing, albeit with lighter terms. [...]

By: Mark Solon

Mark Solon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:07:45 +0000

If you keep up the great job your'e doing Kevin and continue to build a great reputation with the fund, entrepreneurs will see that these terms are in there for your protection from the very rare rogue entrepreneur who does illogical things when things go bad, not to stymie growth of good companies…

By: Mark Solon

Mark Solon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:05:42 +0000

you're getting soft Matt…

By: Mark Solon

Mark Solon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:04:38 +0000

Seems like the old Fram oil filters commercials Jay, "You can pay me now….or pay me later"

By: Kevin Learned

Kevin Learned — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:39:14 +0000

The Boise Angel Fund and the angel groups with whom we co-invest include in our typical deals the exact same investor protections Mark writes about for two reasons: (1) to make sure we have something to say about how our money is put to work and (2) to help set the company up for the next round which may very well be a VC round. We don't have investors looking over our shoulders since we are investing our own money, but we are interested in the exact same protection.

By: MattCope

MattCope — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:20:44 +0000

Great piece.

I remember the flurry of blog posts and uploaded "lite" documentation a few months ago. Sitting on the entrepreneurs' side of the table, it all sounded great.

But I didn't consider the Forgotten Man in the discussion - the institutional investor, who may sometimes need a little more assurance than a lite doc can provide…

By: Jay Parkhill

Jay Parkhill — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:17:37 +0000

This form (heh heh) over substance discussion goes all the way down to formation of a company. Prospective clients ask regularly why they should hire me when they can form a corporation for $350 online (or even free- see rocketlawyer.com).

I can work with this for sure- I sit down with people, map out the plans and figure out the right initial structure so they can incorporate online if that makes the most sense, then come back to me for initial equity allocation and other "next steps". Some of them do the online filing and some just have me do it all. Still, I like my forms better and as a fiduciary I would feel more comfortable seeing clients use them.

Maybe it comes down to a variation of the old saw- speed, low cost, diligence: pick two. We try to get enough of all three in every transaction, but there is always some element of compromise.

By: Tweets that mention Legal Documentation For Venture Backed Seed Deals | Highway 12 Ventures -- Topsy.com

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:52:56 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matt Harris and Cece Gassner. Cece Gassner said: RT @hwy12 My thoughts on legal documentation for venture-backed seed deals http://bit.ly/knoD1 [...]