February 15th, 2024
5pm - 9pm
Startup Bootcamp 201 - Forming a Rock Solid Corporate Structure and Protecting Your Valuable IP
Bootcamp 201 takes a deep dive into two vital aspects of protecting the value of the business you’re creating. Part I covers the corporate structure, stock distribution, and about 15-20 legal contracts that startups usually need to develop by the time they’re selling stock, hiring employees and generating revenue. Part II covers your trademarks, patents and other forms of intellectual property.
Part I: Some of the most daunting tasks in creating a new startup are things like figuring out the “cap table,” equitably dividing equity between co-founders, selecting the ideal legal entity type (e.g. C-Corp vs LLC), and starting out with rigorous corporate hygiene from the get go, so it doesn’t become an obstacle to closing a funding round later. You’ll learn about all the legal documents that you’ll need to create to support your business and protect its value, spanning from employee agreements to user licensing agreements.
Part II: You’ll learn from three highly experienced attorneys how to build a fortress around your IP. Included will be “brand protection” - everything from trademarks to domain names to trade secrets. Next up, how to structure licensing agreements - especially for software companies that will rely on these contracts for the majority of their revenue. Lastly, we’ll dive into patents, including the rapidly changing landscape of AI and machine learning patentability.
Learn from a veteran serial entrepreneur, veteran startup lawyer, an expert intellectual property strategist, and a highly experienced patent attorney on the various ways of protecting and enhancing the value of your enterprise, from inception to exit. You will walk away from this workshop with a checklist of legal documents you’ll need to create and filings you’ll need to make in order to comply with the law, optimize your investors’ and founders’ pre-tax and after-tax returns, protect your intellectual property assets, and minimize your overall business risks.
Meet Your Instructors:
Ron Wiener
CEO Venture Mechanics, 9-time serial entrepreneur
Ron Wiener is a startup CEO career spanning nearly four decades, Ron has founded and run nine investor-backed technology companies, with multiple successful exits. His technical background includes software/internet, electronics and mechanical engineering, as well as extensive global manufacturing experience. A named inventor on more than a dozen patents, he also brings deep expertise in D2C and D2B digital marketing and global strategic partnership development. He has been an angel investor and board member in numerous companies, and has operated four separate startup incubators, in PDX and SEA, since 2000. Ron starred in the first season of Startup Junkies in 2008, and is a widely published author in aviation, ergonomics and entrepreneurship. He also occasionally consults to early stage venture funds and hedge funds, as well as to start-ups and new business divisions that are spinning up or spinning out. He has been an avid pilot since 1984, is a gourmet chef, and addicted chess player.
Brooks Lindsay
LightLegal.com, startup attorney and MBA
Brooks Lindsay is the Founding Attorney of Light Legal PLLC, a lean law firm for high-growth startups. He is a corporate and commercial-contracts attorney who uses his experience as an entrepreneur, and education with a JD/MBA, to help other founders and business leaders thrive. He is experienced in entity formations, general corporate, fundraising and securities, commercial contract drafting and negotiations, tech transactions, IP, M&A, and other common legal issues facing ambitious founders. He provides superior outside general counsel by taking a multidisciplinary approach and quarterbacking across a spectrum of common startup legal needs. Brooks received his JD/MBA from the University of Washington and his undergraduate degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.
John J. Murphy
Intellectual Property Strategy and Technology Transactions Expert
John J. Murphy is the Principal Attorney of Audentes Fortuna Law, a solo technology law practice in Seattle, WA. For more than 14 years, John was the Chief IP Counsel of T-Mobile USA, where he was responsible for all aspects of intellectual property asset development, including worldwide trademark/domain legal and brand management for the company during the period of its greatest growth, from a subscriber base of 25 million to more than 100 million. Earlier in his career, John negotiated the first wireless content licenses for such premier Warner Bros. properties as Harry Potter, Batman, Looney Tunes and a number of films and tv shows as Director, Business & Legal Affairs at Warner Bros. Online. Before Warner Bros., John was a Patent/Trademark litigation and Technology Transactions attorney at Jones Day in Los Angeles where he represented premiere brands such as Starbucks, VoiceStream (predecessor to T-Mobile USA), and the City of Pasadena Rose Bowl. John received his JD degree from Northwestern University in 1997 and his B.A. degree from Harvard College in 1989.
Jonathan Olson
I Win Disruptive IP for Inventors & Investors
Jonathan Olson is a seasoned intellectual property attorney with a passion for strategic thinking, helping you avoid IP pitfalls, maximizing licensing leverage, and getting into the details. Prior to joining ÆON Law in Seattle, Jonathan drafted and prosecuted high-value patents for Intellectual Ventures and Seagate Technology. As a registered patent attorney Jonathan has obtained hundreds of domestic and foreign patent registrations including software patents for prominent inventors like Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He also has a special passion for medical technology from having been cured of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, against the odds, in 2010.