This year's TechPoint Summit was filled with inspiring stories, new
ways to innovate and many developers reaching out with their
product and to others products as well. One positive side that
has arisen in response to the down turn of our economy is
the strong urge for new development and innovation within
the world of Technology. The drive and excitement needed
to fuel this was filling the air
during The TechPoint Summit and events leading up
to it! When
speaking to innovators, developers and...
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The Grand Opening of Triton Brewing
Company took place over Labor Day Weekend,
2011. Triton offers many favorite beers from
the Midwest including a unique blend of their very own
brewed beers.
Triton beers that are offered: Four Barrel Brown, Deadeye
Stout, Rail Splitter IPA, Field House Wheat, and Magnificent
Amber.
To brew their beer, Triton uses reverse osmosis filtration.
They build their own water "recipes" to ensure perfect
calibration in all of their beers.
Triton Brewing Company is a...
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As stated in
Part 2 of
this series, a business’ capital strategy is both
directed by the market strategy and leadership
team required to carry out the strategy as well as
directing to the market strategy and team. A
solid capital strategy is based on understanding where you are and
where you need to go.
The first step in developing a capital strategy is to
know
your revenue projections. If you had the money and
team you need, what can you sell and when? In developing a
market strategy the...
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Over the last three weeks I have visited the west coast twice and
Toronto once to help clients work through funding rounds and
strategic acquisitions. I also visited with two angel
investment groups which I work with. The primary purpose of
each trip was to help clients develop and realize their capital
strategy for growth. While most of these entrepreneur clients
are in technology fields, others include a tax planning firm and a
Bollywood project out of Toronto.
It does not matter what world...
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One of our
very own, Eric Davis, is being nationally recognized for his
success in the October issue of The ABA
Journal. Eric has long been a leader in entrepreneurial
expertise and business law, and is a strong exterior source
contributing to our firm, Alerding Castor Hewitt, LLP. The
article discusses about how Eric jump-started his career and
the many roads on which it has taken him. In the
article, Eric considers himself a "hybrid" because he does not
necessarily fit in just one firm....
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The following is a guest post by a fellow
Gravity Ventures member and
friend, Dr. Tony Ratliff:
Learning to Pitch Before You Start Raising Capital
By Dr. Tony Ratliff
It only took about six months of deal flow and a handful of
“pitches” before I realized that most entrepreneurs are really,
really bad at “selling themselves” and “pitching” their ideas and
companies to investors.
I cringe every time I listen to a great start-up idea or read a
well-written business plan, and then watch in horror as...
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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...
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Once again, Alerding Castor Hewitt sent at team to participate in
the
O'Reilly's Irish Bar &
Restaurant golf scramble, benefitting
The Alliance for
Responsible Pet Ownership.
On Monday, June 20th, Team ACH assembled a crack team of two
litigators, the client relations manager, and our Butler intern -
who just happens to also be on the
Butler Women's Golf Team - for an fantastic day out of the
business law office and onto the links.

Maribeth, Meg, Scott, and Chris

Ready to get our Rory McIlroy...
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Determining a valuation for a pre-revenue company is a difficult
process. A Harvard VC formula does not make sense at this
stage as available P/E ratios essentially compare apples to
oranges, cash flow projections are too untrustworthy to use a DCF
method, and there is no such thing as a true market comp.
Investors must rely on qualitative factors in connection to
valuation formulas to determine how much they think the thing is
worth. Some qualitative factors include:
• Is the...
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"A champion is someone who is ready when the gong rings - not just
before, not just after - but when it rings."
-Jack Dempsey

Tooting your own horn, ringing your own bell...We've decided to
bang our own gong.
Welcome the newest fixture to the Alerding Castor Hewitt office,
the official New Client/Wrapped Mediation Gong.
The litigation and transaction teams didn't have a celebration
worthy of new business, so partner Michael Alerding came to me with
the idea to buy a ship's bell to ring for each...
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There is a new Seventh Circuit Court of
Appeals opinion that is likely to have a significant impact on SaaS
providers. In Digitech Computers,
Inc. v. Trans-Care, Inc. (link
here), the 7th Circuit focuses on a SaaS agreement
for Digitech to provide certain management software licensing
components for Trans-Care (an ambulance and medical transportation
service). The Court ultimately upheld a
breach of contract claim in favor of Digitech, significantly
reduced Digitech’s damages award, and...
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Angel investment groups tend to quickly dismiss investor
presentations that cover complicated products and markets.
They tend to lean towards investment opportunities which they
easily understand the market – often even if it as a worse
valuation or lower expected return than other more complex products
or markets.
This is a problem for those more complex technology
companies. If this is your company, don’t fret. They
key of any angel investor group presentation is NOT to get them to
commit...
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On
Friday, May 6th,
Slingshot SEO announced in a
meeting with Governor Mitch Daniels and Indianapolis Mayor Greg
Ballard that the company will create up to 114 new jobs by 2013.
As one of Alerding Castor Hewitt's most beloved clients, we
could not be more thrilled to see how far the search engine
optimization firm has come since its 2006 founding.
In just three short years, Slingshot has seen a dramatic increase
in employees from 9 to its current 65, and the compan

y
plans to invest upwards of...
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The Alerding Castor Hewitt faithful braved the chill and the rain
of Saturday, April 16th to participate in the 2011
Susan G. Komen
Race for the Cure. We're proud to announce that the team
surpassed its goal of raising $1000 to assist the Komen
Foundation's mission to end breast cancer forever and had a
fantastic time walking in downtown Indianapolis.
We'd like to send a big 'Thanks!' to those who donated to the
team's efforts and share a special 'Way to go!' with the team
members, along with...
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All securities offerings fall into one of three classes:
1. Registered,
2. Exempt, or
3. Illegal.Private offerings of securities are just that – “private”.
The key for any private offering is that the offerer may only
solicit investors through private methods. There are all
sorts of rules around what constitutes private solicitations and to
whom the solicitations can be made, but in general "private" means
that which is not public. If a business attempting a private
offering makes a...
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Very
interesting article from CNet regarding the proposal to be made by
Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill). The article can be found
here. Basic point of the article is
that Senator Durbin wants to add sales taxes to on-line sellers
like Amazon and iTunes (although I would note that I think
iTunes already has a tax component) for all purchases. The
idea being that brick and mortar stores in a given state shouldn't
have to foot the bill for these new-fangled on-line
superstores. They should have to...
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The end is finally nigh for the ongoing litigation roller coaster
that is the Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg v. Cameron and Tyler
Winklevoss saga. This has always been an interesting piece of
software litigation based upon (a) the personalities involved and
(b) the scale. It is safe to say that when you are one of the
fastest growing companies in the country, you are going to face
litigation. In fact, that's why you call me. And it is
equally logical that when you are creating a website or working...
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As promised, here are a few photos from Alerding Castor
Hewitt LLP and KSM's 3/3/11 launch party for Indiana technology
company Gauge Telematics.
It was a fantastic evening for all involved, and we're
very excited to share some moments of it with
you.
Photo credit -
Kayla Marie
Photography. Enjoy!
Mike's speech
Dave's words of welcome
Adrian demoing MileMarker
Dan demoing Fleet Telematics
Mike making the rounds
The event space
It isn't often that business law firms have the opportunity to
really celebrate the success of clients. Typically, the day
to day is more about filing regulations with the SEC, setting up
corporations and the like with the IRS, and drafting contracts,
agreements and subscriptions.
Always out to break the law firm mold, Alerding Castor Hewitt,
along with KSM Consulting, had the privilege of hosting a launch
party for our client,
Gauge Telematics, last
week to both honor their success to date and...
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