Sky Blog
The JOBS Act and Regulation Crowdfunding were intended to create a new and inclusive type of online capital market where all entrepreneurs, regardless of their physical location, gender, or anything else, can go directly to the public (the “crowd”) to …
For founders of companies, appealing to funders can be everything – and that often means projecting a masculine image. In a recent article, we coined the term “venture bearding” to describe this phenomenon, a tactic that can make the difference …
There’s a contradiction at the core of securities crowdfunding, a form of Internet-based public stock market modelled on Kickstarter and its ilk. On the one hand, crowdfunding seeks to create an inclusive system where entrepreneurs, regardless of where they are …
Contracting parties in an on-going relationship often rely on informal norms to resolve disputes and reduce transaction costs. Known as “relational contracting,” this concept is typically studied in the context of procurement contracts between manufacturers and suppliers,[1] but it …
The Silicon Valley ecosystem has changed profoundly since the dizzying heights of the dot-com era. Consider two of that era’s iconic companies: Yahoo! and eBay. At the time of their IPOs, both of these companies were mere infants by today’s …
Lawyers for startups typically serve as counsel to the new organization, with all of the complications that accompany representing an entity. But consider those lawyers as they perform legal work for the enterprise before any organization exists. Who are their …
The role that investors play in replacing chief executive officers of startup companies has been the subject of heated debate in the investing community, and it remains controversial whether investors in startups do better by replacing incumbent CEOs. Our recent …
In our recent paper forthcoming in The Financial Review (2016), we highlight the role of venture capital (VC) in spawning new ventures. That is, after acquisitions, IPOs and other successful exits, entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists (VCs) tend to form …
Scholars agree that crowdfunding regulations in Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act are broken. My latest article addresses their concerns and proposes a solution for crowdfunding based on a deeper understanding of the startup fundraising market—a …
The US economy has been one of the most dynamic economies in the world but recent research suggests that US dynamism is in decline. The startup, job creation, and job destruction rates have all declined over the past three decades …