Startup Law: How To Make The Big Decisions

Frameworks concepts and tools every startup needs to master to succeed-formation, dividing equity, financing and exit

What you’ll learn
What type of business to form and what is required
How to name your business
How to divide up equity among founders
How to protect your intellectual property
How to prepare a simple capitalization table
What are the typical sources of capital and how to use them
How to find investors
How to avoid the most common startup pitfalls
How to sell your business

Requirements
Some business experience is helpful but not needed.

Description
Welcome and congratulations on taking the time to educate yourself. This course is all about startups and the key decisions that shape their formation, growth, and sale. For anyone wanting to educate themselves on the key concepts they need to know when launching or operating a startup this course is for you. This course is geared towards first time entrepreneurs and founders learning how to make informed decisions about their startup. The course will cover all of the key concepts: choosing an entity (corporation, limited liability company, partnership or sole proprietorship), raising money (common and preferred, debt, convertible notes and SAFEs), dividing equity (how to allocate the split among the founder group), capitalization (what is it and how to keep a record of it), protecting your brand and secret sauce (trademarks, service marks, patents, confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure agreements), finding investors (where and how to look), and selling your startup (strategic buyers and financial buyers). The focus of this course is on educating you so that you have the information to make intelligent decisions quickly. While the course is not intended to replace a lawyer, it will make you better informed which will reduce the time and cost of using an attorney. This course will give you some answers to your questions and more importnatly it will also allow you ask the right questions to chart the course of your startup. You are now on the path to success.

Overview
Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Course overview

Section 2: Forming your entity

Lecture 2 Issues to consider

Lecture 3 When a c-corp makes sense

Lecture 4 When an s-corp makes sense

Lecture 5 When a partnership makes sense

Lecture 6 When an LLC makes sense

Lecture 7 Recap – Choice of entity

Lecture 8 Scenario 1

Lecture 9 Scenario 2

Lecture 10 Scenario 3

Lecture 11 Business and product example

Section 3: Naming your company

Lecture 12 Introduction

Lecture 13 US Patent & Trademark Office 3rd party search

Lecture 14 US Patent & Trademark Office DIY search

Lecture 15 Federal trademark

Lecture 16 LLC

Lecture 17 Naming examples – pt. 1

Lecture 18 Naming examples – pt. 2

Section 4: Dividing equity among founders

Lecture 19 Defining value

Lecture 20 Intro and corporation

Lecture 21 LLC

Lecture 22 Vesting

Section 5: Protecting your IP

Lecture 23 Overview

Lecture 24 Smell test and guiding principles

Lecture 25 Common law

Lecture 26 Copyright

Lecture 27 Logo

Lecture 28 Patents

Lecture 29 Federal v. State protection

Lecture 30 Trade secrets

Lecture 31 Secret sauce

Section 6: Capitalization

Lecture 32 Basics

Lecture 33 Corporations

Lecture 34 LLCs

Section 7: Financing types and options

Lecture 35 Introduction and equity v. debt

Lecture 36 Common and preferred I

Lecture 37 Common and preferred II

Lecture 38 Convertible notes

Lecture 39 SAFE

Lecture 40 Debt

Section 8: Finding investors

Lecture 41 Overview

Lecture 42 Self-funded stage

Lecture 43 Seed round

Lecture 44 Seed stage II

Lecture 45 Using a broker-dealer I

Lecture 46 Using a broker-dealer II

Lecture 47 Crowdfunding I

Lecture 48 Crowdfunding II

Section 9: Avoiding problems

Lecture 49 Corporation

Lecture 50 LLC

Lecture 51 Partnership

Section 10: Selling your startup

Lecture 52 Overview

Lecture 53 Finding a buyer

Lecture 54 Pricing for sale

Beginner to intermediate first time founders.