I don't often re-post articles in full glory, but I couldn't resist
with this one. This is a great article from the OMMA (a
magazine of online media, marketing & advertising).
There are some great quotes from quite a few movers and
shakers in the Indiana technology area. As a technology legal
counsel located in Indianapolis, it warms my heart to see this kind
of great press for the area. Personally, I think all
technology firms should move or open offices here.
Big hat-tip to Jay Baer for...
Read More »
Some B2B business models do well in targeting early stage customers
(e.g., less than $5MM revenue) but have trouble scaling with
customers as they grow. Other B2B models cannot hit a price
point for early stage customers and must target customers at later
business stages.
I recently saw a business model that concerned me on this
point. The SaaS application in the model was not cost
effective for early stage customers – there are market alternatives
that are offered for free that do just about...
Read More »
If you are a founder of an emerging company looking to do your
first capital raise, consider talking to angel investors BEFORE
having your private equity attorney draft the organizational and
exempt securities documents for your private placement
offering. I meet a lot of business owners at this stage who
make guesses as to what investors are looking for and what the
market will bear. What pre-money valuation should we use?
What preferences (if any) should we include in the private
placement...
Read More »
I have heard this "problem" stated several times from private
equity investors angel investment groups over this past year, "We
are just not seeing any good deals lately." The Halo Group,
an Indianapolis-based angel investment group focusing on emerging
technology companies, canceled its March meeting due to a stated
lack of deal flow.
Halo members, like most private equity investors, want to invest in
businesses with proven markets and executives. They, like
most investment groups, also want...
Read More »
In my recent blog series,
Entrepreneurial Law - Developing a Good Business
Model, I addressed how an entrepreneur needs to work through
three prongs in order to develop a sustainable business model
developed for growth: Market Opportunity; Management Team; and
Capital Structure.
Private equity investors asses the same prongs when determining
whether to make an investment in an emerging company, but I find
that investors tend to set the prongs in their own priority
ranking. I think all three must...
Read More »
Indianapolis has done some amazing things in
SaaS technology markets. As many readers of this blog know,
much of my business law practice focuses on SaaS law, Internet law
and funding law. Most of this is in business-to-business
(B2B) SaaS markets. This week I was thinking about how this
is not just true of my practice, but it also is true for
Indianapolis as a whole. Most software companies in
Indianapolis are in B2B markets.
The other two markets are business-to-consumer (B2C)...
Read More »
I had the privilege of speaking
at the
Rainmakers Incubator event this morning. I
thought the Rainmakers team did a nice job organizing the event -
even with a last minute change in location due to factors outside
of their control. Thank you guys for the opportunity to join
you this morning!
The topic given to me was "Three Things Every Entrepreneur Should
Know." My legal practice focuses on entrepreneurial law,
funding law, SaaS business law and securities law. In these
fields I see a lot of...
Read More »
Your friendly neighborhood technology legal counsel here: One
of the greatest aspects of our firm is the fact that we, as
attorneys, get to partner with our clients to assist in the
development of their dreams. Additionally, while we focus on
being the general counsel for all business types and sizes, one of
my personal areas of passion is seeing new technology based clients
develop and partnering with them to see their success.
One such emerging company that I'm happy to say we are...
Read More »
Last Tuesday, I attended the TechPoint
Innovation Summit. In addition to meeting some great
entrepreneurs and technology business people, I was fortunate
enough to hear Clayton Christensen speak about his disruptive
innovation economic theory. I have to admit that this was my
first exposure to this particular theory, but it highly intrigued
me and made me think about its applicability to the practice of law
in general and to business law firms specifically.
In a nutshell, Christensen's theory...
Read More »
The TechPoint
Innovation Summit 2009 is finally here. I have been
looking forward to this event this year (which has not necessarily
been the case in past years).
This year's focus is more tailored to helping seed and emerging
stage Indiana technology companies pursue excellence in developing
their innovation, marketing their innovation and seeking funding
for their innovation. As an Indiana tech lawyer these topics
hit right at heart of the needs I have wrestled through with
my clients.
I...
Read More »
I read an
interesting
blog
post by Thomas Klein of
Sand Hill Group this week on
the evolution and future of enterprise software.
Klein states that a new wave of enterprise software has emerged and
is “pulsating through the economy” and venture capital will soon
take notice. The new platform is marked principally by SaaS
and cloud computing. The industry visionaries are referring
to this new era of enterprise software as Enterprise 3.0.
I found Klein's summary of the history of enterprise...
Read More »
As an entrepreneurial law
attorney working with emerging and mid-market technology and SaaS
businesses I am often involved in intellectual property strategies
with my clients. I am not a patent attorney (although my firm
has patent attorneys within our network of partners that we
routinely work with). I do, however, live and breath
technology licensing and my firm handles copyright and trademark
matters for our business law clients.
There is a good article on today's New York Times on-line...
Read More »
There was a
great post this last
week in the Indianapolis Business Journal's blog on Indianapolis
being a leading Internet marketing software city. Chris
Baggott of Compendium Blogware was interviewed on his thoughts
regarding the market.
Here is an excerpt:
Chris Baggott, who runs one of the
companies developing the software, Compendium Blogware, says
Indianapolis actually has emerged as a center of the budding
industry.
Consider that the city also hosts ExactTarget and Aprimo, both of
which...
Read More »
The National Association of Seed
and Venture Funds (NASVF), a national organization of public and
private equity firms and private equity investors, released a study
this week of 5,000 early stage funds and providers that support
young entrepreneurial companies and found that State level funding
for these companies is dire.
According to NASVF’s press release:
The survey found that the vast
majority of young innovative companies across the United States –
the emerging Microsofts, Ciscos, Apples...
Read More »
Thank you for
continuing to read the Business & Culture Blog. The purpose of
this blog is to address those areas of innovation, leadership,
entrepreneurship, technology and community that lie at the
intersection of business and culture. My law practice focuses
on software licensing, entrepreneurship law, SaaS law, legal
technology consulting and private equity. My goal is for this
blog to assist business owners and leaders become more excellent at
their craft. Be sure to subscribe to this...
Read More »
A
friend and client of mine,
Doug Karr, wrote a good post
this week entitled "
Where
to Start a Startup?" I appreciate Doug's candid comments
regarding the climate for private equity investors in
Indiana. Key question - "Starting a business requires
funding. Does Indiana have it?"
Indiana (and its business leaders) needs to continue supporting
innovation and excellence in entrepreneurship - especially if it
wants to remain a market leader in technology industries. As
a funding law /...
Read More »
Earlier
this week I wrote a
post on my issues with the Economic Stimulus Plan passed by our
Congressional and Senate leaders last week (and signed by our
President yesterday). Sorry – I don’t use this Blog to rant
often, but this one ticked me off. In the post I noted that
$200M of the funds designated to Indiana are set aside with few
strings attached.
Former President Clinton summarized the three goals of the bill on
Larry King last night:
1. Put money in people's pockets who are in...
Read More »
Thank you for continuing to read the Business & Culture Blog. The purpose of
this blog is to address those areas of innovation, leadership,
entrepreneurship, technology and community that lie at the
intersection of business and culture. My law practice focuses
on software licensing, entrepreneurship law, SaaS law, legal
technology consulting and private equity and funding law. My
goal is for this blog to assist business owners and leaders become
more excellent at their craft. Be sure to...
Read More »
Thank
you for continuing to read the
Business
& Culture Blog. The purpose of this blog is to
address those areas of innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship,
technology and community that lie at the intersection of business
and culture. My law practice focuses on software licensing,
entrepreneurship law, SaaS law, legal technology consulting and
private equity. My goal is for this blog to assist business
owners and leaders become more excellent at their craft. Be
sure to subscribe to this...
Read More »
Powered by Compendium