Business deals can be exciting opportunities for growth and success, but they also come with risks. One of the biggest risks is fraudulent misrepresentation, where

The Channel Islands, comprising Jersey and Guernsey, have gained a reputation as attractive offshore financial centers. With their robust regulatory framework and advantageous tax systems,

When setting up a business in Ireland, one of the key decisions you will need to make is what type of legal entity to establish.

If you're a business owner in the UK, looking to sell your limited company, there are a few things you need to know. In this

Depending on the business structure, shareholders may be required to pay taxes on dividends. As a business owner, it's important to be aware of the

A dividend is a distribution of a company's earnings to its shareholders. Dividends are usually paid quarterly, but some companies pay them monthly or annually.

When starting a business in the UK, you will need to choose a business structure. The most common types of business structures are sole proprietorships,

A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. Dividends can be in the form of cash or shares of stock,

Dividends are payments made by companies to their shareholders out of profits. Why do companies pay dividends? There are several reasons, but the most common

Microsoft acquires Skype! Largest Microsoft acquisition ever!! Facebook jilted!!! Google jilted!!!! Wait, Facebook wins through Microsoft!!!!! Wait, Microsoft overpaid by $4 billion with a B!!!!!! OMG Google just launched music in the cloud!!!!!!!! What will Apple do next!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every so often, when I get a bit too caught up in the the overw...

Lately, I've noticed a new twist to the typical ebb and flow of the fashion wars. It occurred to me that, for perhaps the first time in my lifetime, it is cool right now to be a nerd. This isn't just the hipster, I'm so uncool, I'm cool and so ironic, I'm unronic sort of thing. From what I can tell, hipster culture is much more focused on affect...

Hey folks -- I'm getting ready to head down to the RTP area for the annual CED Venture Conference. This year it is in downtown Raleigh, instead of Pinehurst, and looks to be bigger and better than ever. So, if anyone happens to be in the area on Wednesday or Thursday, send an email or skype me and we can definitely meet up for coffee and/or beer...

Longtime viewers of this blog will recall that one of my favorite memes is -- "Try Not to Violate Securities Laws." It never ceases to amaze me how easily and often folks violate securities laws. It is a war of information, people, and we need to spread the truth. Here is a sign that my good friend, Fred Bryant (@WealthForgeFred), found on Churc...

(Well, maybe not a whole book, but at least a short chapter...) Hey folks! I know it has been a little while since I've posted anything. I typically take a break over the winter holidays, but have really let it go for too long. However, the good news is that I have built up a great big list of post ideas and topics that I'll be working on over ...

On Monday at the Digital East conference, the obligatory VC panel answered the obligatory question on what the new, new thing is going to be. These sorts of panel questions usually lead to the same answers -- cloud services, social media, programmable web, hey I hear cleantech is going to be big. But for some reason, this panel gave what I though...

(Originally posted on youNEQ on 7/25/10) This weekend, I watched "Helvetica" again. If you haven't seen it before, it's a wonderful documentary about the history of the Helvetica font. What makes it such a good re-watch is that, as it explores the history of Helvetica, it also manages to explore the entire history of post-war graphic design. And...

Today, at the Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, Don Rainey of Grotech Ventures made a sage observation -- he said: When we look at a startup. We look for a commitment to test, to trial and error, to finding the truth. That's what we are looking for.To me this speaks to a fundamental philosophy of startups. Are you coming at your idea wit...

Hey folks, Just a quick housekeeping post. First, I wanted to give you a heads up on some great events coming up that I will be attending -- if you will be at any of these, shoot me a text or email and we can meet up. The first is Digital East happening tomorrow, October 18th, in Tysons Corner. My good friends at Network Solutions are one of th...

As I have mentioned several times in the past (here and here), LLCs, while very useful for general business purposes, are generally discouraged when a company is planning on seeking institutional venture capital. However, despite this general discouragement, folks keep forming LLCs. This blog post contains some words of advice for those folks. PU...

Hi folks, It is that time of the year when, under the guise of crowdsourcing panel ideas, SXSW gets us to mention them a lot and drive traffic to their site. Be that as it may, I would still very much appreciate your vote for one or more of my panels... You will have to create a quick account (takes 10 seconds) and then you can give me the green t...

Today, I attended a great RTP event featuring Mark Cuban. (Thanks to my friends at Southern Capitol and Intersouth for sponsoring it). The event in general triggered a lot of thoughts in me about entrepreneurship that I will share over the weekend. However, perhaps the most interesting part of the event was a discussion on the panel that focused...

Hey folks, I wanted to let you know that I am working on a new project that we are calling youNEQ (pronounced Unique). It is an exploration of personal identity, interior design, custom goods and social discovery. We have started to blog about it a bit and you can find that here. I look forward to telling you more about what we are working on as ...

As you are probably aware, Tesla Motors Inc. is gearing up for an IPO early this week. I am a big fan of Tesla and am number 586 on the wait list for a Model S. The Model S is Tesla's all electric sedan that may or may not be delivered to me in 2012. I am excited both by the technological aspect of the car and by the prospect of never needing to...

You've been working hard. You have a product, it's getting traction. You've been getting some interest from various VCs. And then, voila, you've got a term sheet. Now what?I know that for many folks in these difficult times the answer is going to be -- where do I sign. Maybe you only have one investor seriously looking at your company. Maybe ...

Here are six common sense pitching tips I gleaned from various SXSW discussions. Hope they come in handy.1. Leave the jargon at the door. The folks that you are pitching have to hear dozens of pitches a week. A buzzword that sounds hot to you, sounds obnoxious and stale to them. Keep it simple and just explain why your business model is great....

Now that I've been back from SXSW for a few days, I've had some time to catch up with my backlog of work and emails and collect my thoughts. I met a lot of really interesting people and learned a lot (though typically not by attending the official panels). I am sorting through my notes and will refine them into a few posts over the next couple da...

Am I the only one that has an urge to test this every time I arrive in Austin?

Thanks to Shoebox Blog.

Last week at the Southeastern Venture Conference, I listened to a panel called "2010: State of the Venture Market." The panelists (Jack Biddle from Novak Biddle, Bob Hower from ATV, Dan Marriott from Stripes Group, and Lou Volpe from Kodiak) ranged pretty widely across the venture capital landscape and touched on some great insights for emerging g...

I was just looking at my calendar and thinking about how busy things are going to be. There are lots of good venture capital oriented events coming up in the next few months. If you are thinking about raising capital or if you are doing something innovative in the Southeastern United States, consider attending one or more of these. Also, let me ...

I really wish I had made this. So cool.Check out its construction on the original blog. Its creator, Andrew Lipson, has also made a bunch of other cool stuff.

It's been a few years since I have been actively involved in film financing. I left LA in 1995 and have only been back since for weddings and funerals. However, recently I've been seeing some term sheets for films again and it has reminded me that the basic structure of a speculative film financing is quite different than what you see in a VC or ...

I wonder what the monks would think about the iPad?Thanks to Steve Blank for finding this.

Sometimes, when it rains it pours. Yesterday, I did a post on Free Stock a stunningly easy way to violate securities law. Then, today, I came across a local creamery that was violating one of the foundational tenets of securities laws -- they were making an unregistered public offering of securities.Now, it may seem strange that an ice cream stor...

Recently, I've come across a phenomenon that I thought was long dead and buried -- free stock. That is, start-up companies that are giving away stock in return for a customer signing up for a mailing list or in return for recommending some number of friends. The deal seems too good to be true -- all you have to do is sign up and you get 10 shar...

I have to admit that I am a relative late-comer to the Red Box revolution. About a year ago, one of these strange red contraptions appeared in front of my local grocery store. I was not sold, though I was a bit intrigued. Then, a few months later I was handed a coupon at the end of the check-out line. It said the magic words -- free movie, just...

Corporate Venture Capital is seemingly everywhere -- from Intel?s venture capital arm ranking as the #1 venture capital firm for funded deals over the last decade, to the massive hoopla surrounding Google forming a 100mm venture capital fund last May to invest in virtually any sector they see fit.In the current economic environment where 1) VC mone...

And now for something completely different ...... well, different to the extent that, for the last six months, I haven't put up a single post. And, though I freely admit this is inexcusable, please at least allow me to attempt to explain ...My first posting interruption was caused by a new e-commerce business that captured my attention early this ...

So you always wanted to be a partner in a venture capital fund? Well, here's how it works.The following is Part 3 of my five-part series on how to invest in early stage technology companies as an angel investor or through an investment in a venture capital fund. Privately held companies in emerging technology sectors--such as nanotech, clean tech,...

An interesting historical artifact discovered by Steve Blank. Apparently, in 1956, Fred Terman (then Stanford's Provost) asked Bill Hewlett for help figuring out these new things called computers. Bill's response letter shows just how exotic computers were at the time I have no personal knowledge of computers nor does anyone in our organization h...

The following is Part 2 of my five-part series on the roles of angel investors and venture capital investors in emerging technology sectors with explosive upside potential, such as the nanotech, cleantech, biotech, information technology and new media sectors. In Part 1, I gave a general overview of the playing field. Below, I examine the stages ...

Below the fold is Part 1 of an article I recently wrote for the New Tech Investor e-newsletter. Many thanks to the publisher, Gregg Early, for the opportunity to write a longer piece. Stay tuned for parts 2 through 5. When Venture Capital Fits - Part 1Nanotechnology is a catch-all term for the sciences of the super small. It's notable not just fo...

From All Things Digital on the WSJ.

A few weeks ago, I noted in a quick blog post that IBM has a new method of outsourcing -- not only are they moving the job overseas, they are also moving the people. That is, IBM is apparently accepting volunteers to move to India and other emerging growth countries. But (as always) there are catches: 1) if you do not volunteer there is a decent...

Unless you have been living in a box, you have probably come across Microsoft's new "Laptop Hunters" ads -- where Microsoft gives folks cash and tells them to go find a computer they like. And, coincidentally, they always pick a PC. These ads, along with Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads have been especially prevalent during this weekend's NBA playoff game...

The biotech industry is not for the faint of heart -- especially in an early stage or start-up company. Time frames are long, costs are extraordinarily high and there is no guaranty of success. All of these risks are magnified in today's rarefied air of non-existent IPO markets and schizophrenic M&A exit opportunities.Dow Jones recently hosted a ...