Venture Capital & Emerging Companies

In this episode of MintzEdge’s From the Edge podcast, Will Perkins speaks with Phil Gager of Stifel about venture debt.

In this episode of MintzEdge’s From the Edge podcast, Jeremy Glaser speaks with Jen Rubin about AB 5 — California’s recently enacted law banning most types of independent contractors, the financial impact of that law on start-ups and emerging growth employers, and the changes in hiring methods employers need to make now in order to comply with the law’s provisions.

In this episode of MintzEdge’s From the Edge podcast, attorney Ben Stone talks to Ananth Kasturiraman and Caroline Fay, co-founders of Skillist, about how their company connects employers with untapped talent in order to increase the efficiency of the labor market.

Skillist addresses underemployment through a skill-based, identity-blind online process. Find out what we miss when we rely entirely on resumes for job applications, how a new platform addresses unconscious bias in hiring, Skillist’s backstory, and more in this exciting podcast.

This month’s industry newsletter features an article on California’s Consumer Privacy Act, a Q&A with NYC incubator RLab, and a spotlight on LA’s type:A — a new company focused on health care brands.

MintzTech upcoming events - July 2019

RLab started as a partnership between New York City and its universities to turn the city into a global leader for virtual reality, augmented reality, and related technologies. Innovation in VR and AR has the potential to impact a lot of the industries that make up New York City’s economy – from media and entertainment to health care and manufacturing. RLab was founded to spur corporate innovation, support entrepreneurs and startups, and build a talent pipeline for future jobs.

Through its product, type:A is striving to bring clean beauty to the mainstream – and so far, that effort has been a striking success. Consumers, influencers, media, and investors have had amazing initial responses to the product, and type:A is working fast to capitalize on this momentum. With the support of Mintz, they have raised an extended seed round to fuel these efforts and allow the business to reach its full potential. Soon, they plan to be the go-to brand for safe, effective, and clean personal hygiene products.

In this episode of MintzEdge’s From the Edge podcast, corporate attorney Ben Stone speaks with Steph Speirs and Sandhya Murali, co-founders of Solstice, about their journey starting and scaling a dynamic start-up that aims to make solar energy accessible for everyone in the United States.

As societies and markets increasingly insist that corporations generate positive social impact alongside profit, investors have taken notice. The global impact investing market alone, for instance, doubled from $114 billion in 2017 to $228 billion in 2018, and will almost certainly continue to accelerate.

MintzTech upcoming events - April 2019

In late 2015, Congress amended Section 4 of the Securities Act of 1933 to add new Section 4(a)(7), which permits resales of private, restricted stock after 90 days without requiring a registration with the SEC.

This issue’s topics include the SEC no action letter on utility tokens, raising capital as a public benefit corp, resales of private securities using Section 4(a)(7), distributing equity among start-up stakeholders, and the abc’s of California employment law.

The purpose of granting equity to management, employees and certain consultants is to align the interests of the parties pivotal to the growth of your company with the interests of investors. There are a number of different ways to grant equity in a start-up, the most common of which is stock options. (For an in-depth discussion of granting options, including reasons to give options, differences between Incentive Stock Options and Non-Incentive Stock Options, determining fair market value and vesting schedules, please see this post on our MintzEdge blog.

This alert looks at recent SEC communications providing guidance on — and limiting the use of — digital tokens.

Commercial co-venture arrangements are a great way to blend philanthropy and commercial activities, but the parties in such an arrangement need to be mindful of the rules in each of the 50 states that govern commercial co-venture arrangements.

This issue of TechConnect covers issues for emerging companies to consider when dividing and sharing equity and disproportional rights and controls for directors.

Upcoming events - TechConnect Industry News - February 2019

Jennifer Rubin, a Member in the Employment, Labor & Benefits Practice, and Sebastian Lucier, a Member in the Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice, discuss employment law related matters for companies operating in the state of California, including the challenges relating to characterizing an individual as an employee rather than an independent contractor.

Section 141(d) of the Delaware General Corporations Law (DGCL) allows the certificate of incorporation (COI) of a Delaware corporation to confer upon one or more directors voting powers greater than or less than those of other directors, thus resulting in “disproportionate voting” rights amongst the Directors.