Getting EINs for the foreign-owned LLCs

Lawtrades.com and Legalhero.com are great resources for entrepreneurs seeking legal counsel.

Assuming this is a search campaign, you should be able to see if any new competitors are regularly showing for your keywords. I would also investigate if CPCs have changed (or just conversion rate), how your impression share has changed, and how your average position has changed. If their campaigns are profitable, they will probably continue to run them. Your best bet in the meantime is to optimize your CPC, CTR (helps with CPCs), and conversion rate. You have the history and experience, which should be to your advantage against a new competitor.

This is a complicated question that likely requires legal advice particular to the startup. However, compensating employees at a seed stage typically takes the form of stock options or restricted stock units (RSU)s. Stock options essentially give you the right to buy shares at a certain price (“strike price”) after a vesting period - typically, after your one-year anniversary date, with 25% transferred to you each year over a four-year period. The key here is that you must purchase the options. Your hope is that by the time you’re eligible to buy the options, the stock has appreciated. However, stock value could have eroded making it worthless, which doesn’t happen with RSUs. RSUs are a relatively new financial creature. Similar to options, there’s a vesting period where the employee must satisfy certain conditions before the stock or its value is transferred (typically, there’s a period of time and other conditions - e.g., work performance). Unlike stock options, there’s no purchase involved. Instead, a certain number of units are allocated - or granted - to the employee, but there’s no value/funding until after the employee has satisfied the vesting requirements. As always, please understand this answer is not offered as advice, but only to provide general information. Since there are many considerations involved with the complexities of these transactions, you really need to have personalized advice specific to your circumstances. Please check out LawTrades (www.lawtrades.com) and connect with an experienced startup attorney for additional guidance about evaluating equity distribution.

You should retain a lawyer, or another qualified individual, to act as the third party designee for the corporation (if you do not have a partner or co-owner who is a US citizen). The designee should prepare Form SS-4 (Application for Employer Identification Number) and Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization) for the corporation’s president to sign and return.

You need the terms and conditions. What you can do though is simply changes the specs of the terms and conditions to accomodate this segment of your clients. People who want the license but are willing ( for whaterver reason ) willing to aquire the product on their own dime can still do so. Protect yourself by having the typical "if purhased your agreement of terms and conditions is implied..." With that said is always best if you make them read them... Such as if digital, form is cannot be acknowledged unless they open the terms and conditions form or scroll through it. That way is more alwyas more on them than your company. We cant ever avoid a lawsuit or allegations but what we can do is simply allow people to make their educated decisions and us record such acknowledgement of information.