A NOTEPAD ON COMPANY AND FINANCIAL LAW, NEWS AND REGULATION
From Paul Johnson’s FT column: “There are a host of websites and magazines for entrepreneurs, but no one who works for themselves can afford to spend hours a day surfing. So I have selected a handful of my favourite sites to save you time.”
The list is here.
From the NYT: “Living With Less. A Lot Less.” Excerpt:
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On 27 February 2013 the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills published a consultation document on “Simpler financial reporting for micro-entities: the UK’s proposal to implement the ‘Micros Directive’ consultation“.
The consultation follows the EU’s adoption in February 2012 of a “Directive on the annual accounts of certain types of companies as regards micro-entities - on which, see this post.
From the executive summary of the BIS consultation:
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The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has this month published a good summary document of the various Government schemes designed to assist SMEs in raising finance. Schemes covered (with links in the document to further information in each case) include:
UK Trade & Investment, UK Export Finance, the Regional Growth Fund and the Business Banks are also covered.
Published today. From the abstract:
“We examine the determinants of successful exits in European venture capital transactions and compare them to US transactions. Using survival analysis, we show that for both regions the probability of exit via an initial public offering (IPO) has gone down significantly over the last decade, while the time to IPO has gone up – in contrast, the probability of exit via trade sales and the average time to trade sales do not change much over time. Contrary to perceived wisdom, there is no difference in the success rates of European and US deals from the same vintage year with respect to IPO exits, while Europe has about an eight percentage point lower probability of exit via trade sales than the US. Venture success has the same determinants in both Europe and US, with more experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists being associated with higher probabilities of exit. The fact that repeat or ‘serial’ entrepreneurs are less common in Europe and that European VCs lag US VCs in terms of experience explains the remaining difference in performance. Finally, and contrary to perceived wisdom, we find no evidence of a stigma of failure for entrepreneurs in Europe.”
The European Commission today published its “Entrepreneurship Action Plan” aimed at – in the Commission’s words – ”reigniting the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe”. The full Plan is here and the press release here.
The braod areas addressed by the Plan are:
All quotations below are taken from the full Plan document.
Access to finance – a new EU capital market for SMEs:
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A lengthy NYT article discusses the rise of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending in the United States, and the delay in writing new rules required under the JOBS Act as the SEC struggles to balance encouraging these new financing models with investor protection.
See also: Lots more crowdfunding posts.
“Collider12 is looking for 10 ‘B2Brand’ Startups. These companies will receive £100,000 each and be coached by Pembridge Partnership Ltd, the Brands and selected experts intensively over 13 weeks in order to deliver their ‘Execution Plan’ for ultra-high growth.
The Startups will achieve customer validation and product market fit in the fastest possible way – by working with the big brands early in their lives and throughout their product development.”
FT review of Bill Janeway’s book “Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy”:
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BIS has today published its response to the consultation which it launched on 18 October 2012 on its proposed new “employee owner status”, under which employees would sacrifice some employee rights in exchange for CGT-advantaged shares in their employer. We covered the consultation launch in this post.
The consultation response is here.
From the executive summary of the consultation response:
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Chris Dixon, Shoehorning startups into the VC model
“A startup should raise venture capital (or “venture-style” angel/seed funding) only if: 1) the goal is to build a billion-dollar (valuation) company, and 2) raising millions of dollars is absolutely necessary or will significantly accelerate growth.
There are lots of tech companies that are very successful but don’t fit the VC model. If they don’t raise VC, the founders can make money, create jobs, and work on something they love. If they raise VC, a wide range of outcomes that would otherwise be good become bad.”
The comments are also worth reading.
Website here. Excerpt:
“The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, also known as SEIS, aims to encourage investment in small and early stage companies by reducing the risk to investors of investing in these types of companies. The Government introduced the SEIS as a way to promote new enterprise and boost economic growth in the UK.
The objective of this site is to provide investors and entrepreneurs with information about the SEIS and other forms of investment. You can learn about how the SEIS works, who qualifies to make SEIS investments and which companies can access SEIS money.”
More on the SEIS here.
A good survey from the New York Times here.
“London’s fast-growing start-up scene is trying to disrupt the financial status quo. As consumers’ trust in banks deteriorates because of a series of recent scandals, young companies are pressing their newcomer advantage. Firms are offering services like low-cost foreign currency exchange and new ways for small business to borrow cash.
Backed by venture capital firms like Index Ventures, the financial start-ups are taking on entrenched incumbents by using technology to pare back costs and improve the customer experience.”
See also: Venture capital and tech: government investment, not VC managers, is what matters
The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has today published its consultation on implementing the Government’s proposed new “employee owner status”, under which employees would sacrifice some employee rights in exchange for CGT-advantaged shares in their employer. The BIS press release is here and the consultation document is here (pdf).
Amongst the many thought-provoking aspects of the consultation document is a suggestion is that the Companies Act 2006 rules on share buy-backs might be relaxed after consultation (page 18):
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The Chancellor announced the outlines of a new type of employment contract today, the premise of which is that an employee will give up some employment rights in exchange for CGT-exempt shares in their employee.
The Treasury announcement is here and its main points are set out below. As to how these shares would interact with good leaver / bad leaver provisions, all the announcement says (at note 2) is that the forthcoming consultation on the new contract “will include the details of restrictions on forfeiture provisions to ensure that if an employee-owner leaves or is dismissed, the company is not able simply to take the shares back but is able to buy them back at a reasonable price”.
Treasury announcement:
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From the New York Times, Wilson Sonsini Retools Strategy to Land Internet Start-Ups:
“…reflects the firm’s evolving mind-set as lawyers jockey for the attention of start-ups. In an effort to build credibility among new technology companies, Wilson Sonsini and others are employing a broad set of tools, including offering free services, cozying up to incubators and writing blogs.
Such efforts are critical. While early-stage ventures represent just 20 percent of the firm’s business, those companies can generate hefty fees as they mature. Wilson Sonsini and other firms also make small investments in young start-ups, which can pay off in later years.
“Small deals would not have interested these firms a few years ago,” said Joseph A. Grundfest, a Stanford law professor. “Now, it’s the new normal.”
For years, Wilson Sonsini dominated Silicon Valley, shepherding young technology companies like Apple, Netscape Communications and even the ill-fated Webvan. In 1998, Lawrence W. Sonsini, the firm’s patriarch, introduced two Stanford graduate students to Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, two top venture capital firms. Six years later, Wilson Sonsini helped their company, Google, go public.”
See also: StartupCompanyLawyer.com, run by a Wilson Sonsini partner
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From SmartAsset, a calculator that in TechCrunch’s words “basically takes you through each event that can affect the division of a company’s equity. First you start with the founding — entering the total number of shares, each founder, and the equity that they receive. Then you enter employees and advisors and their equity. You can add multiple funding events and their details, and the eventual exit”. This is for US start-ups.
