Entrepreneurs and emerging growth companies, and the venture capitalists, angel investors, and strategic investors that fund them, are vital to technological advancement and economic growth.
Pryor Cashman understands the dynamics of the emerging company ecosystem and provides partner-centric representation that gives our clients the benefit of our partners’ experience and savvy.
The attorneys in our Emerging Companies + Venture Capital (ECVC) practice understand the different challenges facing the companies, investors, and people in the start-up ecosystem and are committed to helping them navigate their legal challenges in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Start-Ups and Other Emerging Growth Companies
Our ECVC attorneys help entrepreneurs traverse the legal challenges faced by them in their early stages and as they scale their companies, assisting with the critical issues of protecting their intellectual property, negotiating seed and venture financing and other fundraisings, onboarding and compensating talent, and preparing for and successfully executing exit transactions, among other matters. Our ECVC attorneys’ work with emerging companies often begins by counseling entrepreneurs prior to company formation and includes every stage of an emerging company’s lifecycle.
Pryor Cashman brings together attorneys with specific experience representing emerging companies and with the technical knowledge needed to provide sound and pragmatic advice and representation regarding all facets of an emerging company’s legal needs, including:
- Entity selection, formation, and related governance and start-up documentation
- Negotiation of seed and venture financings
- Protection of inventions, technologies, and other intellectual property
- Negotiation of technology licenses, supply agreements, government R&D contracts, and joint venture agreements
- Employment, equity incentive, and benefit plan matters
- Tax planning, including qualified small business stock (QSBS) treatment
- Advising foreign (non-U.S.) emerging companies on their U.S. restructuring (e.g., a so-called “Delaware flip”) to afford access to the U.S. venture capital markets
- Planning and effecting an exit strategy (e.g., merger, sale, or public offering)
Our emerging growth company attorneys pride themselves on thinking like our clients think and providing advice that is pragmatic, cost-effective, and tailored to each client’s specific situation.
Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, and Strategic Investors
Our ECVC attorneys have vast experience assisting a wide variety of investors in emerging growth companies—including VCs, family offices, angel investors, strategic investors, and foreign (non-U.S.) investors—to evaluate, negotiate, structure, and close the full spectrum of fundraising transactions in the emerging company space, from SAFEs and convertible notes to priced seed equity financings to institutional venture equity and debt financings.
Our ECVC attorneys pride themselves on understanding the different imperatives, hot-button issues, market terms and trends, and negotiating leverage of different investors—i.e., strategic investors frequently have broader goals than purely financial investors—and providing client-specific, cost-effective, and pragmatic representation to, for example, lead investors who require full representation and smaller investors whose investment size warrants a more limited review.
