December is a time when you dont see many IPOs. But this was not an...

Back in 1994, Jeff Bezos left his high-paying Wall Street gig and went to Seattle,...

Whats particularly interesting about the alliance of Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Berkshire...

The mobile payments space remains one of the hottest corners of Silicon Valley. Stripe, which is a fast-growing startup in the category, recently snagged an investment round at a valuation of $9 billion, up from last year's $5 billion. Yet this enthusiasm hasn't had much of an impact on PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL). For 2016, […]

Unless you've completely cut the cord, there's a good chance you've seen quite a few commercials with the Trivago Guy? ” a disheveled everyman with gray hair and a wry sense of humor. For the most part, that marketing strategy has worked. And here we are today, with investors on the cusp of buying a […]

It's actually not easy to find faults with Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO). The company was spot-on when it launched back in early 2008, when cloud computing and mobile apps were ready to take off. Since then, the company has continued to add critical features to its communications platforms, such as voice, messaging and video. It also […]

An 83(b) election must be filed with the IRS within 30 days of the grant of restricted stock. There are absolutely no exceptions. It's also a good idea to send the letter via certified mail, with a stamped return receipt. While there is no official form, the IRS does suggest using the following format (or... continue reading »

Summary Unfortunately, there is much confusion with restricted stock. For the most part, it is often mistaken for restricted stock units (RSUs). And while both are very similar, there are still important differences. Restricted stock is where a company grants shares directly to an employee or contractor. But the person will not be able to... conti...

Summary The type of tax you pay is generally based on the income you receive: Ordinary income: This includes most of the money you make, such as wages, commissions, interest, dividends, self-employment income, alimony, distributions from IRAs/pensions and so on. Capital gains: These are gains from the sale of a capital asset, such as a... continue...

Summary When a company grants you an option, you usually have to wait for a period of time until you can purchase the shares. This is known as vesting. For the most part, this is to incentivize you to stay with the company. Types of Vesting Graduated Vesting. This is when you vest a certain... continue reading »

Summary A stock option is a contract between you and a company. Essentially, it gives you the right to buy a fixed number of shares of the company's stock at a fixed price (also known as the exercise price). However, you typically must wait for a period of time until you can purchase the shares.... continue reading »

It?s a tough decision to make: to sell or not to sell? In the case of Tom Smith, who is now the vice president of business development and Strategy at CloudEntr, he thought the timing and circumstances were right to sell his company (a developer of cloud security) to Gemalto . So what were some […]

If you are not making mistakes as an entrepreneur, then your business is probably in big trouble. After all, innovation is about experimentation ? which is fraught with risk. The key, of course, is learning from your inevitable mistakes. So what are some lessons for entrepreneurs to keep in mind? Well, I reached out to […]

Last week I was at a conference on Sand Hill Road, which is in Menlo Park, Calif. The highway is nothing special, kind of rustic looking. But Sand Hill Road is the nerve center of venture capital in Silicon Valley. Some of the firms located there include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Battery Ventures and Greylock […]

There?s little doubt that a customer loyalty program can be a nice driver for sales. But aren?t the costs pretty high for setting one up? Well, maybe not. Just take a look at?FunMobility. The company has an easy-to-use platform to leverage mobile ads and SMS. So to get more details on this, I recently talked […]

Jeff Chen likes being early with new technology, as seen with his startup CLZ Concepts. After all, the company was a pioneer in social games for Facebook (FB). ?After quickly building up a user base of over 20 million, Chen would then sell the firm to Zynga in 2008. Well, Jeff is at it again. […]

Last week I was at a conference for the?Force United consortium, which is focused on helping companies build?their software on the Salesforce1 Platform. The founders include?Kenandy,?ServiceMax?and?Apttus?(I recently wrote a?profile on Apttus). I?m a big fan of startups building on solid platforms. In today?s hypercompetitive world, it is critical ...

For the past few years, we?ve seen a lot of buzz over the prospects for a public stock offering of?SpaceX, a spacefaring venture that makes and launches the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon launch vehicles to transport cargo and deliver satellites for clients including NASA, the US Military and private sector companies. However, perhaps the reason [...

If you are developing a mobile app or thinking about doing so, then you need to use?Apple?AAPL?+0.2%?s new language, Swift. This is the take from Nate Murray, who is the co-founder of?Fullstack.io, which is an online school for programming languages. As a sure sign of the power of Swift, he cloned ?Flappy Bird? within a […]

This week,?Twitter?(TWTR)?agreed to purchase?TapCommerce, a top player in the mobile ad space. While no price tag was disclosed, the buzz is that the deal came to about $100 million. The acquisition also comes on the heels of a big run for Twitter stock, which is up about 25% since late May. First, let?s get some […]