The Climb: A Legal Blog to Help Entrepreneurs Chart and Stay the Course to Growing Their Business

Welcome!

This blog is intended to provide entrepreneurs with guideposts to help them navigate the complicated startup ecosystem. While we hope this blog will help you more easily recognize these guideposts as you approach them in your startup journey, creating and operating a startup takes a team. To succeed, you’ll need a strong internal team (your co-founders and employees) and a strong external team (capital sources, including investors, banks, etc., and service providers, including your lawyer, accountant, bookkeeper, payroll provider, insurance broker, etc.). We’re happy to discuss our firm possibly joining your team. If you are interested in engaging our firm, please complete and submit the short form on our contact page.

The materials included on this blog are often legal in nature, but these materials are not intended to be legal advice for your specific situation. If you are an entrepreneur or someone considering taking the plunge into the world of startups, then we highly recommend that you engage legal counsel (whether us or another reputable firm). Although legal advice can feel like a big upfront cost, we know from experience that it is well worth it. Hiring experienced legal counsel upfront can save you thousands of dollars in the long run. Having started our own firm, we understand the need to closely manage cash flow. We have been in your shoes. Every dollar counts. We hope that this blog shows that good legal representation is a value add and not just another cost center that you need to manage.

Breaking Down a Venture Capital Term Sheet

Once you have decided to raise money from third-party investors, the next step is typically to prepare a term sheet summarizing the terms on which your company will issue equity to such investors. The content of the term sheet will be driven by the type of security...

Choosing Your Investors

Once you have decided to take on third-party investments to help fund your startup, you then need to decide what kind of investors, and then specifically which investors you want to accept funding from. Often founders do not give this piece enough thought. The makeup...

FTC Bans Most Non-Compete Clauses.

As of September 4, 2024, most employment-based non-compete clauses in the United States will be unenforceable unless a national injunction is issued in one of the numerous lawsuits that have already been filed challenging the final rule issued by the United States...

Choosing the Right Entity for Your Startup.

Despite what you may read in certain corners of the web, a C corporation is not necessarily the best entity choice for every startup, even if the startup is seeking venture capital funding. Entity selection is one place where good legal counsel and a knowledgeable...

Choosing the Right Funding Source for Your Startup.

Let’s face it, starting a business takes money. How you choose to fund your business has many consequences for you personally and for your business. The right funding source for your business will depend on your personal financial situation (maybe you’re independently...

Mission Statement

Our mission is to assist with all legal aspects of investments and business structures, decision making processes and transactional activities in a way that positions our clients for success. We also strive to foster a work environment within our firm that is mutually supportive, makes our team want to come to work, and makes each of our clients feel like they are our top priority.