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Our mission at Tome is to help everyone agree. Today we’re proud to announce that our first product is now available to everyone. Tome for SAFEs, designed for VCs and entrepreneurs, ensures that the contracts you sign match the deal you negotiated. Tome solves contracts using AI. We build software that translates legal text, so that you can control the business points. It’s like having an AI co

Pro rata rights are the most important right for investors. Just ask AVC. While getting a company to agree to pro rata rights is a huge victory, it’s only half the battle. Once you secure pro rata rights, your next task is to make sure they can’t be taken away. This often occurs when they are “waived” on your behalf in connection with an equity financing. Here’s the scenario: You invest in a co

Just like having a quality set of investors can increase your company’s likelihood of success, having excellent advisors will help you navigate the complex landscape of growing and scaling a company. The best advisors for your company will be experienced in your specific industry or your current stage of the business lifecycle and have the experience and insight to help you make informed decisions

Raising money from a large venture capital firm is a lot like banking with a large, commercial bank. You’ll have access to capital, resources, and the credibility that comes along with banking with an established entity, but you probably won’t have the tailored advice and around the clock support that comes with banking at a local community bank. When it comes to who you should target for your

Every time a company raises additional money or increases the number of authorized shares, the existing stockholders experience dilution. Although founders often anticipate some dilution when raising a round of funding, if you’re not accounting for the option pool you may experience more dilution than you’re expecting. The option pool is the shares of common stock that a company sets aside for

Running a company during a recession takes grit — the economy is volatile, the financial markets are unpredictable, and investors are tightening their purse strings. Despite the risks, opportunities exist in any market cycle and many unicorns emerge during recessions. Here’s what you need to know about running a company during a recession. Do Your Research Research market cycles and current tr

Think of “up” rounds and “down” rounds as the equivalent of “bull” markets and “bear” markets. When the economy is thriving (i.e., bull markets), companies tend to have more “up” rounds, but when it’s floundering (i.e., bear markets) you’ll see more “down” rounds. A “down” round is a financing round at a lower post-money valuation than the company’s previous financing round. As market sentiment sh

Our mission at Tome is to help everyone agree. Today we’re proud to announce that our first product is now available to everyone. Tome for SAFEs, designed for VCs and entrepreneurs, ensures that the contracts you sign match the deal you negotiated. Tome solves contracts using AI. We build software that translates legal text, so that you can control the business points. It’s like having an AI cop

Van Halen is a rock band that is famous, or infamous, for many things, including big hair, loud music, and massive concerts. One infamous Van Halen story is that the band required its concert dressing rooms to contain a bowl of M&Ms -- with all of the brown M&Ms removed. This story is generally shared as a symbol of the band’s excessive behavior, but in truth, the brown M&Ms were an ingenious tool