Category Archives: Startup
Accredited Investors: What That Means and Why It Matters
You’ve got a great pitch and a friend who wants to invest. Sounds simple. It isn’t. Whether you can actually take their check — and how much paperwork comes with it — depends on whether they’re an “accredited investor.” That term is buried in securities law, but it shapes almost every early financing decision… Read More »
What Are the Pros and Cons of Accelerator Funding?
Getting into Y Combinator or Techstars is, for some founders, the validating moment that makes them feel like a real startup. It’s also a transaction. You’re selling roughly 6–7% of your company for a check, a network, and a Demo Day. Whether that’s a great deal or a bad one depends entirely on what… Read More »
What is the Difference Between a Startup Accelerator and Incubator?
The words “incubator” and “accelerator” get used as if they meant the same thing, but they don’t. They’re different programs serving different stages of company, with different trade-offs — one of which is whether you give up equity. Picking the wrong one wastes a year you don’t have, or costs you a chunk of… Read More »
How Does Venture Debt Financing Work?
Venture debt gets pitched to founders as the holy grail of fundraising: capital without dilution. That’s mostly true, with an asterisk the size of a small comet. Venture debt is real, useful, and often the right move for a growth-stage company. It is also more expensive and more constraining than founders realize when they… Read More »
Raising Capital from Friends and Family
Your first check often comes from someone whose number is in your phone. A parent, a former boss, a college roommate who did well in crypto. It feels less formal than a real fundraise, and that’s the problem — friends and family money is real money, with real legal consequences, and the casual posture… Read More »
Choosing a Legal Structure for Your Startup
One of the first things you’ll do as a founder is choose a legal structure for your business. It’s not glamorous, but it matters — your entity type affects your taxes, your liability exposure, your ability to raise capital, and how much it’ll cost to change your mind later. Here’s how the four main… Read More »
C-Corp vs. S-Corp: Which One Is Right for Your Startup?
Most founders know they want to incorporate. Fewer know which kind of corporation they actually need. The two options — C-Corp and S-Corp — look similar on paper, but they’re built for very different kinds of businesses. The short answer: if you’re raising venture capital, it’s a C-Corp. If you’re running a profitable business… Read More »
The Exception: The LLC-to-Corp Flip
There’s one scenario where starting as an LLC and converting to a C-Corp later isn’t just acceptable — it’s the smart play. But it’s not for everyone, and the math only works under specific conditions. Section 1202 of the tax code gives shareholders in qualified C-Corps a massive benefit: if you hold your stock… Read More »
Raising Capital for Your Startup
Before you build anything, you need money. How you get that money — and what you give up for it — shapes everything that comes after: who controls the company, how much you own at exit, and what your options look like if things don’t go according to plan. There are three basic ways… Read More »
What Is a C-Corp and Why Do Startups Prefer It?
Finn Founder just got back from a meeting with a VC. The VC loved the pitch, wants to invest, and Finn is over the moon. Then the VC asks: “You’re a Delaware C-Corp, right?” Finn is an LLC. This happens more often than you’d think. And it’s fixable — but it’s a lot easier… Read More »