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Pitch decks for demo day. Goes without saying that raising capital is a critical moment for any startup. It’s your first impression that can essentially make or break (figuratively) the opportunity at hand. Branding is what sets one business apart from another. It's what makes Apple a luxury tech brand and Nike a reputable sports brand. Understanding how to create an effective branding strategy can help your startup stand out on your big day.

Know your market and competition, or don’t spend a dime on anything else. I love absolutes – statements with no wiggle room for gray-area responses. Well, here is one of those, and it deals with market research first and foremost. Let me tell you a short story at my own expense...

A note is a loan. That is, a lender gives a company $100, and the company writes a note to the lender stating "we will pay you back $100 one year from today, along with 10% [or some other number] per year interest". The convertible part means that in addition to the straight repayment mentioned above, the lender and the company agree that instead of the company paying back the loan in cash, if the company raises money by selling stock to another investor before the loan is due, then the original lender (the "noteholder") can use the amount of the loan (plus the interest) to purchase stock on exactly the same terms as the new investor. Depending on how the note is written and the amount and valuation of the equity (ie, stock) sale, the conversion may be either optional on the lender's part, or mandatory. A discount on the conversion means...

In our previous posts, we discussed how to call a Board of Directors Meeting, the Quorum Required for the meeting, along with the Means of Attendance, Written Resolutions Documenting the Board Minutes, Duty of Care, and addressing potential conflicts of interest. Our third installment will delve into the importance of well drafted meeting minutes.

On March 16, 2023, the U.S. Copyright Office published a policy statement saying that the Copyright Office would generally not register copyrights in the output of artificial intelligence. The Copyright Office invoked the traditional requirement for a work to be copyrightable that the creative authorship must be that of a human author. Stephen Thaler owns a computer system he calls the “Creativity Machine,” which he claims generated a piece of visual art of its own accord. Thaler sought to register the work for copyright, listing the computer system as the author and explaining that the copyright should transfer to him as the owner of the machine. The Copyright Office denied the application on the grounds that the work lacked human authorship. Thaler challenged that denial, culminating in a lawsuit filed in the federal court for the District of Columbia against the Copyright Office, titled Thaler v. Perlmutter. On August 18, the court upheld the Copyright Office’s position.