Venture Capital Trends: East Meets West – Lewis Geffen, Co-chair, Venture Capital Practice
In the world of early stage investing, there exists a range of structures from the most founder friendly to the most investor friendly. The most investor-friendly structure involves some type of a priced round in which...more
In a venture capital deal, a liquidation preference refers to the payout investors receive in a liquidation event (like a sale or merger) prior to any payments made to the common stockholders. Venture capital investors...more
In recent years, hotel sponsors and developers have increasingly turned to alternative capital sources, like preferred equity, to finance and reposition their existing assets and fund new acquisition and development...more
In the regular corporate world, the capital structure of a company usually means the ratio between the company’s equity (money the company’s owners invested in it) and debt capital (external funding injected into the company...more
In January 2020, Senator Julia Salazar and Assembly Member Harvey Epstein introduced a bill (S7231/A09041) in the New York State Legislature proposing to charge a recording tax (similar to the mortgage tax) on mezzanine debt...more
In recent years, fintech has been an attractive sector for growth capital, as evidenced by robust investment and M&A valuations in the sector. While interest remained high in 2019, deal volumes began to level off early in the...more
Being an entrepreneur involves wearing many hats. In addition to thinking about product and design, you must also be able to speak the language of investors. Below are some important terms every entrepreneur should know...more
The corporate spectacle better known as The We Company IPO officially and mercifully came to an end September 30 when The We Company (“We Co.”), the corporate parent of WeWork, requested that the Securities and Exchange...more
In late September 2018, Y Combinator released new forms of Simple Agreements for Future Equity (“Safes”) containing significant changes to the original forms released in late 2013. In its issuing release, Y Combinator cited a...more
The National Venture Capital Association (“NVCA”) has created and maintained a standardized, industry-embraced set of model documents that can be used as a starting point in venture capital (“VC”) financings. These model...more
Preferred stock is commonly used for venture capital and private equity investments. It gives the investor the ability to convert to common stock if the deal succeeds, and also includes protection of the liquidation...more
The management packages offered to managers in LBOs can sometimes be differentiating factors for financial sponsors enabling them to win a competitive process for the acquisition of a target company. However, although...more
Christopher Mims had an article in the Wall Street Journal recently titled “The Dangers Ahead if Tech Unicorns Get Gored.” In his article, Mr. Mims discusses the potential collateral damage of a failed unicorn. The article is...more
The Delaware Chancery Court issued its long-awaited post-trial decision last month in In re Trados Incorporated Shareholder Litigation. In the decision, the court affirmed that directors designated by the venture capital...more
In early 2011 we published our first Seed Financing Survey (for 2010) in recognition of the growing importance of seed financing to entrepreneurs and the venture capital environment, especially in the internet/digital media...more