Startup Fundamentals (#I): Doing a Startup Right (BONUS A serial CEO's thoughts)

Guest Entrepreneur to share his wisdom during the workshop: See Bob Christopher's bio below.

For entrepreneurs, deciding to form a company, getting involved with a start-up, scaling and getting the right people on the bus (and compensating them), presents enormous challenges. Navigating around legal, co-founder splits of the pie, business strategy, fund raising and other issues can often seem overwhelming, and traps for the unwary or uninformed are numerous. However, successfully avoiding the most common pitfalls can make a significant difference as to whether or not a company is fundable, the sources and types of capital that will be attracted, who controls the company, the economic impact on founders upon exit, and a company’s likelihood of success. In this first segment of the Startup Fundamentals series, Roger Rappoport (http://www.procopio.com/attorneys/roger-c-rappoport) will discuss these and other issues in an interactive, informative session with great take away materials and actionable items.

Common Startup issues that will be covered:

• choices in entity selection;

• creating an appropriate capitalization table;

• co-founders vs early employees;

• appropriate allocations of founders’ stock (including Series FF Preferred Stock) between founders and vesting, repurchase rights and rights of first refusal:

• determining if and when it is appropriate to obtain proxies from co-founders/early employees;

• stock allocation for employees, consultants, board and advisory board members, and the perils of Section 409A under the Internal Revenue Code when granting options;

• when milestone based vesting, as opposed to time based vesting, is appropriate

• the assignment of intellectual property, and ensuring that all IP created belongs to the company;

• executing employment/consulting agreements; and

• the value of developing an intellectual property strategy early on.

5:30 P.M -6:00 P.M. networking, light dinner and refreshments

6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. Workshop.

Our event is open to: startup founders, startup executives, entrepreneurs, innovators and developers.

Bring your hard learned wisdom and questions and RSVP now, as seating is limited!

Guest Entrepreneur: Bob Christopher: I am happy to announce that Bob Christopher will be joining our workshop in Silicon Valley to share his highs and lows and do's and dont's from lessons learned in 3 companies he built, funded and exited, one of which generated over $20MM in revenue the first year. Bob is a successful entrepreneur and technology executive, with extensive experience driving market growth, revenues and partnerships for connected devices and smart data companies. He enjoys leading high performance teams with multidisciplinary skills that produce remarkable results. He is social media savvy, highly effective networker and "lean start up" practitioner.

Personal Notes:
Raised: $55MM in venture funding.
Launched: (And funded) 3 successful consumer tech companies.
Author: The 2-Year Itch: how to build a successful consumer device company.
Adviser: M17, GAME, popSLATE, NUKO Toys, Blue Anatomy
Board member: Versaic
DEMO God winner: 2006 (Pleo)
Mentor: PCH Highway 1 Incubator