October Newsletter
Hello from Tokyo, where I traveled to help a client complete its inbound migration into the US followed by a series A venture capital financing. The transaction is not only good news for the client and the energy tech sector generally, it also illustrates a very common transaction — the Silicon Valley Flip. You can read my powerpoint slides describing it here or listen to my recent podcast and video interview with venture capitalist Andrew Romans, where we discuss this type of transaction in depth. The tax aspects might surprise you.
Haynes and Boone sponsored the Pitch Global Corporate, Government & Impact Funding Summit in San Francisco on September 22. I moderated two panels on AgTech. Our investor panel was enlightening and it is clear that agtech investment has suffered in recent years as VC activity has cooled. Our future of agtech panel offered some good advice on how to compete for funding in a competitive market.
In important legal developments, FinCEN has proposed giving newly formed companies more time to report their ownership information under the new beneficial reporting rules. The proposal would give companies created in 2024 90 days to report their beneficial ownership information instead of the current 30 days. You can read more about these rules in a recent Haynes Boone alert and see our recent webinar on the topic.
Also in the news, several recent high profile cases illustrate how easy it is for an employer in California to attract a wage-and-hour or employee misclassification lawsuit. Because of California’s Private Attorneys General Act, these cases can be killers if a company fails to pay overtime and minimum wages, provide rest breaks or reimburse business expenses.
Podcast Episodes
The 10,000 Startups Podcast is well underway. Log in at any of these to hear short interviews on timely startup law topics for entrepreneurs. Recent podcasts have covered:
Subscribe at Apple Spotify Amazon Google and BuzzSprout
Recent Notable Deals
$1.2 Billion Take-Private Sale
Business Combination and PIPE Financing
Upcoming events
Recorded Interview on the How2exit M&A podcast (ranked in the top 10 in the world in 2022 by Feedspot and bcast)
Startup Law (Part 2) for the Alameda County Bar Association (https://www.acbanet.org/calendar/) on October 25
Late Stage Venture Investing for the Santa Clara County Bar Association (https://members.sccba.com/event-calendar) on October 25
Other past events
The big event last month in startups was TechCrunch and Haynes Boone sponsored the Latino Startup Alliance TechCrunch Event @ Shack15.
Haynes Boone and Royse AgTech participated in the annual Commercial UAV Expo on Sept. 5–7, 2023 at the Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, NV.
We also presented on doing business in the Silicon Valley to a Silicon Valley Innovation Tour for a group of bankers from large banks in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Dubai on September 11.
