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MenuWhat are the steps involved for a Canadian Entrepreneur to launch a business in Silicon Valley?
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The most important legal ramification of a Canadian launching a business in Silicon Valley is immigration. You must have a visa that allows you to operate the business (hire and manage employees, etc) in order to be running a business.
I started a business in Canada and was able to attract great Silicon Valley angel investors to invest in the Canadian corp. In the early-stages, there is less importance placed on where the business is domiciled than what the business has managed to achieve or who it's founders are.
There are significant advantages to keeping the business in Canada in the earliest stages and then moving to the Valley as you look to raise further funds and scale your business.
Without a doubt, it's good to be making frequent trips to SF & the Valley so as to build your network but from an actual formation perspective, I would argue that there are more benefits in the majority of cases to staying in Canada in the earliest stages.
Happy to talk to you about this in a brief call.
Best of luck!
I'd strongly recommend you reach out to Mr. Roham Gharegozlou, the owner of AXIOM ZEN technology/design company in Vancouver. Suffice to say, the bloke is rather ZEN! See: www.axiomzen.co // My engagement with him has been pleaseant and I think the man is heavey #meta! (my way of saying he's very clever!) - Feel free to call me for further information as I know many Canadian business leaders in various verticals in Tech, Marketing and Entertainment! (BK)
Source: http://www.livefromsiliconvalley.com/venture/startup.html
Form a Corporation or LLC
The best way to do this is to have a service firm do the work for you with the state for a small fee. We have used, and reommend Legal Zoom.
Get a business permit
While the County of Santa Clara issues no licences, the mailtain a great list of all the individual cities and their phone numbers for their business/license permit offices. Check out Santa Clara County business license per page.
Santa Clara has reasonable fees. Check them out.
Get Business Cards
Try: VistaPrint
Get Insurance
A general liability policy is a small investment. We recommend:
Get a Bank Account
WAMU seems to have the best basic business checking, and no fees.
Get yourself a web site
We use 1and1.com and recommend them highly. Good service and reasonable cost, and free tools. You will have what you need fast.
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Cash money should be treated separately than sweat equity. There are practical reasons for this namely that sweat equity should always be granted in conjunction with a vesting agreement (standard in tech is 4 year but in other sectors, 3 is often the standard) but that cash money should not be subjected to vesting. Typically, if you're at the idea stage, the valuation of the actual cash going in (again for software) is anywhere between $300,000 and $1m (pre-money). If you're operating in any other type of industry, valuations would be much lower at the earliest stage. The best way to calculate sweat equity (in my experience) is to use this calculator as a guide: http://foundrs.com/. If you message me privately (via Clarity) with some more info on what the business is, I can tell you whether I would be helpful to you in a call.TW
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What legal precautions can I take to make sure nobody steals my startup idea?
I've discussed ideas with hundreds of startups, I've been involved in about a dozen startups, my business is at $1M+ revenue. The bad news is, there is no good way to protect ideas. The good news is, in the vast majority of cases you don't really need to. If you're talking to people about your idea, you could ask them to sign an NDA ("Non Disclosure Agreement"), but NDAs are notoriously hard to enforce, and a lot of experienced startup people wouldn't sign them. For example, if you asked me to sign an NDA before we discussed your Idea, I'd tell you "thanks, but no thanks". This is probably the right place though to give the FriendDA an honorable mention: http://friendda.org/. Generally, I'd like to encourage you to share your Ideas freely. Even though telling people an idea is not completely without risk, generally the rewards from open discussions greatly outweigh the risks. Most startups fail because they build something nobody wants. Talking to people early, especially people who are the intended users/customers for your idea can be a great way to protect yourself from that risk, which is considerably higher than the risk of someone taking off with your idea. Another general note, is that while ideas matter, I would generally advise you to get into startup for which you can generate a lot of value beyond the idea. One indicator for a good match between a founder and a startup is the answer to the question: "why is that founder uniquely positioned to execute the idea well". The best way to protect yourself from competition is to build a product that other people would have a hard time building, even if they had 'the idea'. These are usually startups which contain lots of hard challenges on the way from the idea to the business, and if you can convincingly explain why you can probably solve those challenges while others would have a hard time, you're on the right path. If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to set up a call. Good luck.DK
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What is a better title for a startup head....Founder or CEO? Are there any pros/cons to certain titles?
The previous answers given here are great, but I've copied a trick from legendary investor Monish Pabrai that I've used in previous startups that seems to work wonders -- especially if your company does direct B2B sales. Many Founders/ CEOs are hung up on having the Founder/ CEO/ President title. As others have mentioned, those titles have become somewhat devalued in today's world -- especially if you are in a sales meeting with a large organization. Many purchasing agents at large organizations are bombarded by Founders/ CEOs/ Presidents visiting them all day. This conveys the image that a) your company is relatively small (the CEO of GM never personally sells you a car) and b) you are probably the most knowledgeable person in the organization about your product, but once you land the account the client company will mostly be dealing with newly hired second level staff. Monish recommends that Founder/ CEOs hand out a business card that has the title "Head of Sales" or "VP of Sales". By working in the Head of Sales role, and by your ability to speak knowledgeably about the product, you will convey the message that a) every person in the organization is very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the product (even the sales guys) and b) you will personally be available to answer the client's questions over the long run. I've used this effectively many times myself.VR
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If I am planning to launch a mobile app, do I need to register as a company before the launch?
I developed and published mobile apps as an individual for several years, and only formed a corporation later as things grew and it made sense. As far as Apple's App Store and Google Play are concerned, you can register as an individual developer without having a corporation. I'd be happy to help further over a call if you have any additional questions. Best of luck with your mobile app!AM
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If I have 51 percent and my partner has 49 percent of our company, what real decision making authority would I have?
On paper you have the advantage but after several startups control resides in he who knows how to execute the vision of the company.HJ
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