[author: Jared Brenner]

Some interesting links we found across the web this week:

'Regtech' startups see more business in Trump era
Startups are beginning to react to the looming possibility of deregulation under the incoming administration, particularly those in the fintech space, says Reuters. As laws are undone or replaced, new business-to-business services will emerge to help navigate the changes. (Bonus link: regulatory threats to tech immigration under the H-1B visa are already pushing foreign engineers away from American startups.)

EU court rejects data retention law, throwing cold water on UK’s ‘Snooper’s Charter’
Meanwhile, across the pond, the EU continues favoring privacy rights over government and corporate requests for greater access to (and retention of) customer data. This week the European Court of Justice strongly rejected a UK surveillance law, making the issue ripe for reassessment in a few years when the Brexit is complete. Check out this TechCrunch piece to see the court’s press release, but be sure to read this in-depth analysis from our very own Dr. Martin Braun, Reed Freeman and Sol Eppel.  

US Startups Are Piling on Debt
As Bloomberg reports, in a down year for venture capital investment through priced rounds, startups have increasingly turned to debt as an alternative or supplemental source of funding. Compared to VC deals, taking on debt has the advantage of not putting a valuation on your company’s stock, but make sure you really can make those loan payments—lenders have every incentive to bankrupt your company if you can’t. 

The rise of the family office venture investor
Speaking of alternative capital, TechCrunch has noticed a new trend of venture investment by family offices, vehicles that manage extremely wealthy families’ fortunes. Investing in a startup directly through this vehicle (instead of the vehicle investing in a VC or private equity fund) can save the investor money and yield more transparent contact with the startup, so it’s worth a thought if you have the right network.

Why CEOs Who've Bootstrapped Their Business Have The Competitive Edge
And if your company is already a good candidate for more traditional venture capital investment, the next question is: how soon is too soon? Great thoughts on the matter from Forbes on the importance of bootstrapping as long as you can (and we caught a related Forbes piece).