Tag: stock issuance

New York’s Blue Sky Securities Laws – A Primer for Startups and Other Issuers by Michael Stanczyk

Accredited Investors, Angel Investors, Broker-Dealers, Crowdfunding, Financing Your Business, Investors, Private Placements, Securities, Stock, Venture Capital

3d blue sky bookAs a younger lawyer I was regularly working on securities offerings.  For the bulk of the offerings they were private placements to accredited investors under SEC Rule 506(b), which involved filing a Form D and state notice filings.  In most states it was pretty straightforward. New York, however, was not straightforward then, and still remains a mystery to many people.  Over the years I searched for a book that covered the basics of New York’s Martin Act (the law covering securities offerings in the State), but never found exactly what I was looking for.  I kept working on deals and writing posts for this blog (in addition to memos and white papers, etc.), and over time I compiled a decent amount of information and knowledge of the subject and decided to put it all into one place.  Next thing you know I had the beginnings of a book.  Link to see it on Amazon here.

Now I don’t profess to being a specialist in the field of securities, as there are many complexities and rabbit holes to go down if you get outside the more “vanilla” type offerings. Startups, emerging companies and even investment funds, however, generally are raising money through private placements under SEC Rule 506(b). This book gives the basics and is, like its titled, a primer.  I tried to walk a fine line to allow it to be read by non-lawyers, with enough citations to assist legal practitioners.

Admittedly, this book is a niche product.  The prospective audience is those whose companies are looking to raise money, or individuals otherwise involved in some aspect of companies raising money.  I hope it can be helpful to such individuals, including younger attorneys just getting started in the field.

In any event, the book is for sale in paperback and e-book on Amazon.   I personally feel the paperback is easier to read and to flip back and forth to things, and to view the exhibits and addenda, which should be consulted. I have a number of copies of the book, and if any friends and colleagues of mine (which I knew prior to this post) would like a free copy , feel free to reach out.  Thanks for the support.

SEC Adopts Final Rules Amending Regulation A

Crowdfunding, Financing Your Business, Investors, Securities, Stock, Venture Capital

On March 25, 2015, the SEC adopted final rules amending Regulation A, referred to now as Regulation A+. These amendments were required by Congress via Title IV of the JOBS Act which was passed some time ago. (we are all still waiting for the Regulation Crowdfunding rules to be finalized).

The general rule is that when a company offers or sells a security, the security must either be registered or an exemption from registration must be relied upon.  Regulation A has been on the books for a long long time and has been relied on very little.

Now the SEC has a tough job, its tasked with allowing companies to raise money via offerings of securities but on the other hand it needs to ensure that fraud does not run rampant. These two goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive, but the SEC has generally focused on the latter of the two at the expense of the first.  Read more

Use your Retirement Plan to Fund your Startup

Business Entity Formation, Financing Your Business, Startup Formation, Stock, Tax

First of all, I won’t advise anyone to withdraw their 401(k) funds early as the tax hit the IRS enacts is insane.  If you are thinking about doing that, please don’t, or at least don’t do so until you’ve spoken to your accountant.

This post will, however, detail how to use your qualified retirement plan or IRA to start a new, or buy an existing, business.  This name given to the process I’ll discuss is rollovers as business startups (“ROBS”).  The main gist is that an individual’s current retirement plan is rolled over into a newly established 401(k) plan sponsored by a startup company and then used to purchase the startup company’s stock.  The ROBS arrangement allows income taxes and penalties (see IRC Section 72(t))to be avoided because it is a rollover from one qualified plan to another. Read more

Ten Tips for Pitching your Startup to Investors

Accredited Investors, Angel Investors, Financing Your Business, Investors, Securities, Venture Capital

I volunteer at a couple of small business incubators and programs.  I was sitting in on a mock pitch last week and giving some pointers on how the entrepreneur could polish their pitchdeck and overall presentation. I figured I’d put these up so people can take a look.  The below are offered to any startup looking to raise money: Read more

Securities Laws as applied to Virtual and Online Items

Securities, Stock

There’s been a lot of discussion about whether online or virtual accounts can be deemed securities under the U.S. federal securities law.  The most well known at the moment is Bitcoin.

A case was just decided where the court found that Bitcoin was a currency.  Based on that fact, and that the protaganist in the case was offering a money making scheme (you put in money, wait and make more money off Bitcoin), the scheme was subject to the securities laws.   We’ll have to parse out the holding.  The court did not hold that the Bitcoin itself is a security, but rather that Bitcoins are a type of currency – because they can be converted into currency (which I’m not sure I agree with – any commodity, product or item can somehow be converted to currency – and the distinction between selling and converting seems like a big deal). Here’s the link to the case, its actually rather short and sparse on legal analysis for one that makes such huge leaps in legal doctrine as applied to a concept which the court is probably not overly familiar with.  The old adage that bad facts make bad law seems to be the culprit again, as the scheme the guy in Texas was attempting to pull off was not something a judge would let him off on.

I’m pretty sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of the SEC v. Bitcoin debate.  Mark it up as SEC 1, Bitcoin 0 so far, unfortunately.

I’ll give a breakdown of the securities laws and how they could be, and have been, applied to virtual goods, online items, and currency, including Bitcoin (which I’m not conceding is technically a currency). Read more

Intrastate Securities Offering Exemption

Financing Your Business, Securities, Stock

I wanted to blog on some of the lesser known and relied on securities exemptions.  In certain situations they can be very helpful.  One of these is the federal Intrastate Securities Offering Exemption.  Simply, if you offer and sell in one state and one state only, and some other factors are met, the issuer is exempt from the federal registration requirement.  Blue sky laws will still apply but some states have limited offering exemptions or other exemptions the issuer can rely on. Read more

SEC allows general solicitation and advertising in Rule 506 offerings

Accredited Investors, Financing Your Business, Investors, Private Placements, Securities, Venture Capital

Yesterday, July 10th, under the provisions of the JOBS Act the SEC passed its Final Rules which amended Rule 506 and Rule 144A to lift the ban on general solicitation and advertising in offering and selling securities in a Rule 506 sale as long as all purchasers of the securities are accredited investors. Read more

Series A Participating Preferred Stock and Term Sheet Terms

Accredited Investors, Angel Investors, Financing Your Business, Investors, Securities, Stock, Venture Capital

If your startup just got a term sheet from an investor saying that they want to invest in your company and want to receive participating preferred stock with all of these other rights, you may be a bit overwhelmed.  First off, congratulations on the proposed investment.  Next, I’ll explain what all of those terms on the term sheet mean in this post starting with the participation component of participating preferred shares. Read more