Week 6 Reading for The Business of Entrepreneurship (LAWS 61702)

Topics: Sales and marketing. Metrics in the business. Interacting with the board of directors.

Readings: Available for free on the web, with links to them here (remember to read the comments of the blog posts): http://del.icio.us/jrodkin/laws61702 :

• “Boards that are not Bored” – blog post by Brad Feld, The Foundry Group
• “The Art of the Board Meeting” – blog post by Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures
• “How and What to Measure” – blog post by Dick Costolo, Founder/CEO of Feedburner (acquired by Google)
• “The World’s Shortest Marketing Plan” – blog post by Kelly Odell, Volvo
• “Improve Sales with a Marketing Plan” – Article in Entrepreneur Magazine by Kim Gordon
• “No Surprises” – blog post by Josh Kopelman, First Round Capital
• “Using Scorecards with Your Board” – blog post by Matt McCall, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage Ventures
• “Pipeline Management” - blog post by Matt McCall, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Portage Ventures

Week 5 reading for The Business of Entrepreneurship (LAWS 61702)

Week 5 (April 28)


Topic: Representing startups as corporate counsel. Guest speaker: Peter Werner from Cooley Godward Kronish.

Readings:

Available for free on the web, with links to them (except the employee docs) here (remember to read the comments of the blog posts): http://del.icio.us/jrodkin/laws61702:

• "BigCo Warning Letter"
• "BigCo PIIA"
• “How to Save Money Running a Startup" - blog post by Jason Calacanis
• DGCL 141(b)
• "409A Government Maximus Interruptus" - blog post by Brad Feld, The Foundry Group
• 409A Cooley Alert series

For reference (won't be discussed directly in class, but will be helpful for your practice)

• NVCA docs link: http://www.nvca.org/model_documents/model_docs.html
• Corporate counsel: http://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/home/
• SLD: http://www.law.uc.edu/CCL/index.html
• Potter Anderson's DGCL reference guide for handheld devices: http://www.potteranderson.com/edelaware.html

Week 4 reading for The Business of Entrepreneurship (LAWS 61702)

Week 4 (April 21)


Topics: Personnel (and documents). Compensation. Intellectual Property (NDAs, PIIs, patents); Non-competes, non-solicitation, and non-disparagement.

Readings:

These are left over from week 3 and are under the week 3 tag at Del.icio.us

• “Nine Questions to Ask a Startup” – blog post by Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures
• “The Truth about Venture Capitalists, Part 1” – blog post by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, Opsware, and Ning
• “The Truth about Venture Capitalists, Part 2” - blog post by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, Opsware, and Ning
• “Build your own Cap Table” – article at Venture Hacks. (If you need help with this one, watch the video walk through.)
• “Cap Table Hygiene” – blog post by Will Price, CEO of WidgetBox, former VC

Available for free on the web, with links to them (except the employee docs) here (remember to read the comments of the blog posts): http://del.icio.us/jrodkin/laws61702:

• Proprietary Info and Inventions Agreement
• Sample MNDA
• Offer letter template
• “What are Typical Compensation Numbers” – blog post at Ask the VC
• The Sales Commission Dilemma – Inc Magazine
  

Week 3 reading for The Business of Entrepreneurship (LAWS 61702)

Week 3 (April 14)

Topics: Financing strategy and execution; Cap table.

Readings:

Available for free on the web, with links to them here (remember to read the comments of the blog posts): http://del.icio.us/jrodkin/laws61702

- “Nine Questions to Ask a Startup” – blog post by Guy Kawasaki, Garage Technology Ventures
- “The Valuation Trap” – blog post by Stu Phillips, Ridgelift Ventures
- “Venture Capital Deal Algebra” – blog post by Brad Feld, Foundry Group
- “The Truth about Venture Capitalists, Part 1” – blog post by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, Opsware, and Ning
- “The Truth about Venture Capitalists, Part 2” - blog post by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, Opsware, and Ning
- “Ten Pragmatic Steps to Raising Venture Capital” – blog post by Bill Burnham, hedge fund manager (Inductive Capital) and former VC
- “Build your own Cap Table” – article at Venture Hacks. (If you need help with this one, watch the video walk through.)
- “Create a Market for your Shares” – article at Venture Hacks
- “Cap Table Hygiene” – blog post by Will Price, CEO of WidgetBox, former VC
- “Liquidation Preferences” – blog post by Brad Feld, Foundry Group
- “To Participate or Not” – blog post by Brad Feld, Foundry Group