Jan
23
The Business Development Corporation of Provo holds a monthly Xcelerator Forum for local entrepreneurs. The discussion today proved useful and fascinating. During the discussions, Mark listed the gotchas that many entreprenuers overlook:
- Illegal public offerrings. Don’t have your friends or others pass around email saying that you’re trying to raise money.
- 83B Election with the IRS. If you have stockholders whose stock vests over coming years, the stockholder must file an 83B Election with the IRS within 30 days of the contract (not of when the stock vests). Otherwise, that stockholder could get nailed with taxes as a company grows. Not fun. This topic generated a lot of questions and discussion. I was glad to learn that we had handled things properly with our stockholders. Here’s a form that will create the 83B Election document for you.
- Giving an unregistered finder a commission on an offerring.
All the panelists seemed competent in their fields of expertise:
Panelists:
Mark Bonham–Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati– He called himself a Securities Lawyer. Has a lot of experience in Silicon Valley.
http://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/DBIndex.aspx?SectionName=attorneys/BIOS/416.htm
Jon C. Christiansen–TechLaw Ventures — Calls himself an IP lawyer that doesn’t do patents. Tip from Jon: post a visible policy in the company that states, “we respect the intellectual property of others.” To watch your back if your employees screw up with illegal downloads or something.
http://techlawventures.com/
Brent J. Hawkins–Bennett Tueller Johnson & Deere, P.C. — I didn’t catch what Brent’s speciality is because the conversation got too intense after Mark and Jon got started.
http://www.btjd.com/attorneys/hawkins_brent.html