A recent panel for the startup group Idea to IPO recently gathered a group of venture and corporate investors to discuss investing in the sector.[i] The space industry was a $380 Billion business globally in 2020 and is expected to grow to $10 trillion by 2030 and accounts for 0.5%…

Theranos founder Liz Holmes has been found guilty on four counts in her trial about Theranos’s blood tests and business prospects. Although fraud is a very factual inquiry, the case of Liz Holmes has some valuable lessons for Silicon Valley. Holmes is alleged to have exaggerated claims as to the…

In January of 2021, Congress enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (“NDAA”). The CTA requires legal entities to register with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) and disclose their ultimate beneficial owners. Absent the CTA, neither the federal government nor the…

Agriculture causes 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions.[i] It need not be that way. For years, the tech industry has been working on ways to make farming smarter, more efficient and more sustainable. Since 2014, the Silicon Valley AgTech Conference[ii] has showcased the newest, boldest and most innovative agtech companies…

The autonomous vehicle (AV) space is heating up as corporate and financial investors have shown renewed interest in the space and the technology and regulatory environment have advanced. AV is not a technology as much as it is a capability comprised of a combination of technologies. Those technologies include imaging…

By now everyone has heard of the use of SPACS to access the public markets. A SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, is a company that raises money to acquire a private company. Since the SPAC has no financial history, early investors do not know in advance what company they…

The recent ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the largest gasoline pipeline in the United States, has accentuated the vulnerabilities of technology-based critical infrastructure. It has long been known that the supply chain is vulnerable to cyberattacks. In 2017, for example, the shipping giant Maersk was a victim of the…

For California small businesses, the news these days seems bleak. State and local governments have shut down most of the state, legislators in Sacramento have proposed increasing the top state income tax rate to 16.8% and the costs of doing business remain high. Litigious parties and opportunistic lawyers have been…

With all the turmoil in the economy, now might not seem like a good time to start something new — but there are good reasons to launch now if you are in the right industry. …