Friends and Family Round: How to Raise Without Breaking Relationships
A friends and family round can fund your startup or fracture your family. Learn the securities, documentation, and cap table rules to get right first.
LLC for Startups: Flexible, but Awkward for Venture Capital
An LLC for startups is flexible but awkward once you raise venture capital. See why VCs prefer C-corps, the QSBS and option traps, and when to convert.
Cap Table 101: How Startup Ownership Really Works
A cap table tracks who owns your startup and how much. Learn cap table basics, dilution, notes, the option pool, and the errors that erode founder ownership.
Accredited Investor Rules: What Founders Must Know in 2026
Accredited investor rules decide who can back your raise. Learn the 2026 income and net worth tests, verification traps, and how founders stay compliant.
Equity for Services: 7 Costly Tax Traps to Avoid
Paying with equity for services is the oldest trick in the startup playbook. Cash is tight, talent is expensive, and a slice of ownership feels free to hand out. It is not. The moment you trade stock for work, you create tax consequences, dilution, and a relationship that needs real paperwork, and skipping any of […]
Authorized and Outstanding Shares: 5 Costly Mistakes
Few things trip up new founders faster than the difference between authorized and outstanding shares. The terms sound interchangeable, they show up on the same cap table, and getting them backwards can lead to bad math on ownership, dilution, and even your tax bill. They are not the same thing, and the gap between them […]
Non-Disclosure Agreement: 7 Costly Mistakes to Avoid
A non-disclosure agreement is the quiet workhorse of business law. It sits in the background of almost every deal, hire, and partnership, and nobody thinks about it until information they cared about ends up somewhere it should not be. By then the agreement either does its job or exposes how badly it was drafted. The […]
LLC Operating Agreement: 7 Critical Clauses to Protect You
Think of your LLC operating agreement as the company’s prenup. Nobody signs it expecting a fight, and everybody who skips it regrets that choice when the fight finally arrives. The document decides who controls the business, who gets paid, and what happens when a member wants out, dies, or simply stops pulling their weight. Draft […]
Governing Law and Court Selection: 5 Costly Errors
The two clauses most people skim at the end of a contract—governing law and forum selection—quietly decide who wins when a deal goes sideways. The governing law clause picks whose rules interpret the contract; the forum (or court) selection clause picks where the fight happens. Get them wrong and you can lose a strong case […]
409A Valuation vs. Preferred Stock: 5 Critical Facts
Every startup that grants stock options eventually collides with two very different numbers: the price investors pay for preferred stock, and the fair market value of the common stock set by a 409A valuation. Confusing the two is one of the most common—and expensive—mistakes founders and employees make. A 409A valuation is an independent appraisal […]