Our Emerging Growth Team specializes in meeting the needs of early stage and emerging businesses. We understand and embrace the fast pace, high risk, and constantly changing environments in which entrepreneurs work, and we remain flexible to meet their needs as they arise.

EMERGING BUSINESS FACTS

Entrepreneurs face formidable challenges in a start-up enterprise, protecting novelty, securing management, locating capital, meeting competition. We advise on survival and critical path items. Entrepreneurs need capital to make their vision a reality. We can assist them in identifying compatible angel investors, venture capital institutional funds, and other capital sources. We can assist in financing. We can assist you in structuring capital that allows you to retain control of your business.

We advise investors on strategies to create wealth through early stage companies. We identify business opportunities. We also assist in ensuring that capital remains in safe hands. The JLG Emerging Business Group members are multilingual and also experienced in international financing and licensing.

CONTRACT UNIVERSE

We explore innovative solutions for the multitude of contracts and alliances that are needed to start and grow a business. From incorporation forward, we try to foresee problems and plan solutions. We advise with respect to management incentives, employee stock options and equity incentive plans.

We assist in bringing products to market quickly. We negotiate and prepare licensing, distribution and reseller agreements for products and ideas. We further assist in protecting the intellectual property that maintains a company's competitive advantage by preparing and negotiating non-disclosure, non-solicitation and non-competition agreements for employees and other parties.

We assist in negotiating and implementing joint ventures, strategic alliances and other corporate partnering ventures that contribute to business success. We further assist in identifying potential partners.

EXIT STRATEGIES

We identify preferred exit strategies. We work with you and investors to develop strategies preserving value for shareholders when a change of circumstance requires it. We organize companies to maximize shareholder realization at exit. We have extensive “sell-side” representation experience and techniques that consistently obtain high values. We offer practical formation terms and processes meeting the needs of multiple investors in future environments. We protect owner expectations.

REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE

  • Formed, and represented the founders of, an Information Technology consulting firm that was ultimately sold to a Fortune 100 company.
  • Represented, from formation, three companies that grew to become the largest in the Northwest in their markets.
  • Represented investors in a variety of private equity and venture capital financings of start-up and medium-sized issuers through limited partnership and limited liability company interests, and preferred stock. Representation included investor groups financing developers/
    franchisees of major gourmet fast food store chain.
  • Represented the owners of private companies in exit events realizing in excess of 300 million dollars.
  • Participated in the representation of a national wireless telecommunications company in connection with its initial public offering of equity securities.
  • Represented a leading U.S.-based internet portal in connection with the creation of its UK subsidiary-a joint venture between the portal company and a leading UK-based utility-and provided ongoing advice to management related to permissible activity within the scope of the joint venture agreement.
  • Advised the UK and European subsidiaries of a leading U.S.-based internet portal in connection with various internet-related and commercial matters, including the negotiation and drafting of dozens of contracts involving licensing, internet services, e-commerce, sponsorship and other commercial issues.
  • Advised the UK subsidiary of a leading U.S.-based online ticketing service regarding the delivery and licensing of its European online services, and negotiated and drafted commercial contracts for the delivery and licensing of such services through cable-based and interactive television platforms.
  • Represented the founders of a biofuel company and a composite housing company in the formation and capitalization of each company.
  • Negotiated ‘product innovation’, ‘commercialization’, and ‘patent valuations’ agreements with a dominant multinational consulting company.