Venture Capital & Emerging Companies

MintzTech Guest Article: Letter to Jamie Dimon and Anyone Still Struggling to Understand Cryptocurrencies

In this podcast, Charlie Silver, the founder of RealAge, a big data email marketing company, discusses how he turned his company around during the dotcom crash and successfully sold it to The Hearst Corporation.

In this podcast, David Taylor, the founder of CineForm, a digital media company that was successfully sold to GoPro, discusses how he built a successful company and the many challenges he faced along the way.

Jeremy Glaser speaks with George Kenney, Founder and Managing Director of Shepherd Ventures, about the challenges of raising venture capital and how to grab the attention of venture capitalists with your pitch deck and thirty second elevator pitch.

Selecting and protecting your “brand” should begin from the very moment a business is in the process of being formed, whether that business is a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company or some other type of entity.

In this Podcast, Jeremy Glaser, Co-Chair of the Mintz Levin Venture Capital and Emerging Companies Practice, discusses with JD Davids, the Founder and Managing Partner of SmartMoney Startups, practical steps that entrepreneurs can take to identify, approach and close the best investors for their companies.

In this Podcast, Jeremy Glaser, speaks with Mike Krenn about how he advises entrepreneurs to identify and approach angel investors and venture capitalists and his recommended best practices for writing pitch decks and executive summaries.

Jeremy Glaser, Co-Chair of the Mintz Levin Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Practice, discusses key lessons for entrepreneurs running growing with companies with Patrick Henry, the CEO and Founder of QuestFusion.

Jeremy Glaser and Greg Chin give insights on what to expect on upcoming episodes of From the Edge and share some stories that explain how certain of their clients have achieved financial success and lessons learned along the way that would benefit any entrepreneur.

The Series limited liability company (the “Series LLC”) is more nuanced than an ordinary limited liability company, and for the right user, it provides flexibility that will streamline administration better than other alternative entities.

After being in the insurance industry for several decades in a variety of roles, I frequently get asked which insurtechs I think are going to be successful.

Words are very powerful and the language we use often frames a discussion. For example, the term “shareholder activist” sounds like a consumer friendly person who has everyone’s best interests at heart, when in fact the term “shareholder activist” is a phrase invented to cast corporate raiders in a better light. Such semantic gamesmanship often masks the reality of a particular situation.

Since its beginnings in early 2015, quip, the Brooklyn-based dental start-up co-founded by former industrial product designers Simon Enever and Bill May, has swiftly reinvented the archaic dental healthcare industry. From its superbly designed electric toothbrushes to its subscription toothbrush-head and toothpaste replacement service, and its “dental connect” digital platform for customers and dental professionals, quip has made it easier, more enjoyable, and more affordable for customers to keep their smiles bright and healthy. For these achievements, quip has received unprecedented dental industry and press coverage, including recognition as one of TIME Magazine’s 25 Best Inventions of 2016, a place on the O, The Oprah Magazine “O-List,” and a 2016 GQ Grooming Award. With such accolades and its robust social media following, quip is revolutionizing the way people around the world approach oral healthcare.

Historically, most startup companies were funded either by the offering of equity or by loans in the form of convertible promissory notes. Recently, however, there have been some hybrid instruments created to fund startups.

The potential to disrupt the historic insurance industry model has made insurtech one of the hottest new areas of innovation and investment, with entrepreneurs developing technologies at a breakneck pace and venture capital firms seeking to put investment dollars behind an exciting range of new products and services aimed at efficiencies and cost savings.

The current edition of MintzTech Connect includes an article relating to investing in hot secondary securities and an article on some of the pitfalls in our “gig economy” under New York law when hiring independent contractors. We also highlight a very cool young company called Kinnos, which is raising the standard of infectious disease decontamination to protect healthcare workers, patients, and the general public.

There is little doubt that activity in the trading of secondary shares of private companies remains robust. Private companies are staying private longer and there seems to be an unlimited demand to buy into the newest “Unicorn” anointed each week. As the market for secondary shares stays strong, valuations seem not to matter much to most buyers.

Kinnos Inc. is a New York-based company that is raising the standard of infectious disease decontamination to protect healthcare workers, patients, and the general public. Their first product, Highlight®, is an additive for disinfectants that eliminates human error and allows even untrained end-users, such as healthcare workers, housekeeping staff, and biosafety personnel, to immediately use disinfectants effectively.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission member Michael Piwowar on Tuesday urged investors to be wary of the pitfalls of so-called SAFE investments — a sophisticated financing instrument for startup companies — that are increasingly being marketed to the broader retail investing public.

Creating a business in the gig economy (on-demand work) is advantageous for startups because when they are able to classify their workers as independent contractors, the startups can avoid paying benefits, payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and disability. Startups, however, need to carefully classify their workers as misclassification can lead to investigations, penalties, and lawsuits, which are becoming increasingly common.