Robinson & Stover’s start-up experience includes helping entrepreneurial businesses in technology and other industries, whether started with a major venture capital financing or founded on a bootstrap budget. We combine our entrepreneurial experience and technical legal skills to help you make the key decisions in the formation of your business, including:
- Choice of business entity: corporation (Sub Chapter S and C), limited liability company (LLC), general or limited partnership, proprietorship, non-profit, cooperative, business trust, or joint ventures (international & domestic)
- Tax attributes: taxable or flow through entity, cash or accrual accounting
- Capitalization plan: voting and non-voting common stock, convertible preferred stock, warrants and other rights, and rights upon merger or liquidation
- Corporate governance: relationships among, powers and duties of stockholders, officers and directors
- Employee rights and obligations: employee contracts, intellectual property contracts, intellectual property rights assignments, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements
- Compensation plans: stock option plans, restricted stock, bonus and profit – sharing plans
- Stockholder agreements: insurance-funded buyout arrangements, dispute resolution mechanisms and voting trusts
Our experience allows us to provide founders with a start-up game plan that provides significant flexibility for growth. While some decisions in structuring an entity can be delayed or changed later at modest cost, other decisions could commit the business to a course that cannot be changed without substantial tax, legal and administrative costs. Our seasoned attorneys focus on your practical objectives and operate within your capital reality to help you navigate the process in the most efficient manner.