Category Blog

Many entrepreneurs and startup founders have great ideas; however, first-time founders often lack knowledge about finances, investment, and lack a strong network. Ambitious founders who want to succeed with their new startup, sometimes feel overwhelmed when confronted with new and unfamiliar vocabulary such as “incubators and accelerators.”

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With a few exceptions, lawyers have traditionally charged by the hour for legal services. As we spend time with entrepreneurs and startup founders, we have found that traditional fee arrangements don’t necessarily meet their needs. Think about the various subscriptions you use in your day-to-day life such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, Spotify. Then, think about a similar model for lawyers; legal subscription services.

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As an entrepreneur, you put blood, sweat, and tears into your startup, not to mention your savings and investments of others. Strong branding is one of the things which will help your startup succeed in the first few years. As you put together your branding strategy, you have likely created a symbol or design for your logo and/or some type of slogan, catchphrase, or word to set yourself apart from your competition.

It’s crucial for you to trademark your creative marketing tools to prevent others from using them. Keep reading to learn exactly which items you could/should trademark, how to go about the application process, and why you should have a trademark attorney during the process. 

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Phantom Equity (“PE”) is a contractual agreement for a type of deferred compensation between a company and key employees, advisors, and/or contractors. Startups can offer PE to valuable employees, so they have skin-in-the-game, and thus, feel an urgency to help the startup become as successful as possible in the shortest amount of time.

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For startups, raising money at the seed stage can be difficult, but this is probably when your business needs money the most. If your startup finds a venture capitalist (“VC”) or angel investor (“Angel”) willing to invest in your startup at the seed-stage, you should avoid these four common seed-stage pitfalls that can derail the deal. The Brown & Blaier, PC can ensure that you remain in compliance with state, federal laws while you seek funding for your startup at the seed stage and beyond.

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Your brand is valuable. Protecting your brand with a registered trademark is important to maximize your brand awareness and protecting consumers from inferior impostors. However, if you fail to enforce your trademark rights when they are violated, you risk losing your brand name to genericide. Protecting your brand from the beginning is essential.

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