Speaker Details

Anil Advani

Name : Anil Advani

Designation : Managing Partner

Company Name : Inventus Law

Anil Advani specializes in the representation of early stage startup companies, venture funds, institutional angel investors and many prominent angel investors in silicon-valley and India. In the last 12 years practicing law in Silicon Valley, Mr. Advani has represented more than 900 startup companies and numerous founders, venture capital investors, angel investors, and venture lending and leasing sources on issues relating to formation, founder issues, consulting and advisory arrangements, capital structuring, angel financings, venture financings, debt financings, leasing, strategic licensing and customer arrangements, and mergers and acquisitions. He also has an active practice representing India-focused public companies, investment banks, financial institutions and venture funds on acquisitions, financings, joint ventures and other strategic transactions.\r\n\r\nPrior to starting Inventus Law in 2009, Mr. Advani was Of Counsel and Head of India Practice in the Menlo Park offices of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Before joining Orrick, he was General Counsel and Vice President of SemIndia, a pioneering effort to establish semiconductor manufacturing in India. In that role, he was responsible for coordinating with the Government of India in formulating a comprehensive semiconductor policy for India as well as with the State of Andhra Pradesh in structuring Fab City in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Prior to joining SemIndia, Mr. Advani was a Senior Associate in the Silicon Valley offices of Cooley Godward where his practice focused on representating emerging companies and the venture funds and banks that finance those companies. Mr. Advani began his legal career as an attorney in India where he practiced for a number of years at the High Court of Delhi.\r\n\r\nMr. Advani is fluent in English, Hindi, Sindhi and Punjabi. He is licensed to practice law in California, New York and India.

Topic: Legal Issues for Startups

Abstract:

Legal Issues for Startups\r\nSo, you have decided to start a company. There are a host of decisions you need to make as a founder like whether to bootstrap the venture- perhaps from revenues from your consulting gig- finding office space or converting your garage into an office, hiring the right team that will work well with each other and with you, and whether to offshore development of your core technology. While founders focus on these critical decision points, they often end up overlooking one of the most important areas of the venture's development: Legal issues for Startups.

While there are a number of factors that go into the making of a successful startup, taking care of the legal set up, founder stock issuance and related formation matters correctly and in a timely manner will largely determine whether or not the founders end up making any money from the success of their ventures.

Come and listen to the leading silicon valley corporate lawyer, Anil Advani, as he discusses the various legal issues that need to be addressed by the founders and startups at an early stage like structuring of the company's initial capitalization, issuance of founder stock, vesting and acceleration for founder stock, election of the company's board and officers, and seed capital.

This will also be a great opportunity to ask questions pertinent to your startup, like:

  • -Incorporation:
  • -when to incorporate: when working with another employer? When working on an H-1B?
  • -where to incorporate: Delaware versus California
  • -form of incorporation: S Corp, LLC, C Corp?
  • -putting together the company's initial cap table
  • -electing the company board of directors and officers
  • -structuring the founder stock, vesting and acceleration; 'single trigger', 'double trigger' acceleration
  • -closing seed financing
  • -setting up the option plan
  • -working with advisors, consultants, board advisors, and co-founders
  • -protecting the company's IP
  • -the do's and don! t's of legal issues in order to prepare the founders for the time when the venture raises venture financing and 'outsiders' become shareholders and join the board.

This session will be ideal for entrepreneurs looking to start a company or those that have taken the venture off the ground but have not been paying attention to the legal issues. Come to learn, and walk away with critical tips on structuring your venture right so that you can reap the rewards of your hard work instead of losing it out because of some legal issue resulting in losing your economic value in the venture.