In the world of venture capital, there are certain investor rights that ensure the smooth execution of exit transactions. The primary such mechanism is the drag-along provision, under which one group of stockholders agrees in advance to sell or vote their shares in a sale of the company approved by another group of stockholders and/or
A major theme of this Blog has always been ongoing legislative, regulatory and market initiatives to reform capital markets by targeting unreasonable or outdated impediments to capital formation to make it easier for early-stage companies to raise capital. These impediments are not always obvious or direct. One such indirect impediment has been the venture capital
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank will have enormous repercussions for startups and VCs in ways seen and unseen. As for the unseen, SVB had deep relationships among the various players in the venture ecosystem. Founders and investors established banking relationships with SVB in part because of the opportunities SVB provided to network within the
Two startups with competing, equally compelling technologies at the same stage of development are pitching venture
capital investors for Series A funding. One startup is led by a serial entrepreneur founder, the other by a novice. Assume each will get funded. In all likelihood, the deal will happen quicker and the amount funded and pre-money
2021 was a spectacular year for the American venture capital ecosystem, with VC
investments, fundraising and exits all setting new highs. That according to the latest PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, the self-described definitive review of the U.S. venture capital ecosystem. Nevertheless, it is difficult to predict how 2022 will turn out for the VC industry,
This past June, autonomous vehicle technology startup Zoox agreed to be acquired by
Amazon for a whopping $1.3 billion. Time for the common stockholders to pop the champagne, right? Not exactly, according to a complaint filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery by two common stockholders. Although many details have been redacted from the public
It’s no shocker that the Coronavirus pandemic has slowed down venture capital 
investment dramatically, with 2020 now on pace to be well below the high levels of the past couple of years. According to Pitchbook, VC deal flow through June 28 fell to just 4,675 funding rounds as compared with 6,357 in the first
The corporate spectacle better known as The We Company IPO officially and mercifully came
to an end September 30 when The We Company (“We Co.”), the corporate parent of WeWork, requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission consent to the withdrawal of We Co.’s registration statement because it “no longer wishes to conduct a public
2018 was a historically good year for venture capital in the United States in terms of dollars invested by VC funds in U.S.
companies, dollars raised by VC funds and dollar value of exits by VC-backed companies, according to the Venture Monitor for Q4 2018 published by PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association. VC
It’s not often that the House of Representatives votes nearly unanimously on anything noteworthy these days, but that’s exactly what the House did on July 17 in voting 406-4 for the “JOBS and Investor Confidence Act of 2018”, also known on the 
street as “JOBS Act 3.0”, which is the latest iteration of the effort