Legal Questions

Essential legal issues that startups face, including corporate formation, fundraising documentation, founders stock, and board relations.

1 Votes
2 Answers
2.37K Views
I own a domain extension of a publicly traded company. Could I sell it?

I registered a .us extension of a startup which is now public on Nasdaq.Is it legal for me to sell the domain name on a marketplace like Flippa or Godaddy Auctions?P.S. My intention wasn't to be a...

asked Apr 3 '14 at 22:12
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Vivian Sims
7 points

0 Votes
3 Answers
5.55K Views
Is sending a monthly invoice required if you're a SaaS company?

If you're a SaaS company in the United States, is it required by law to send a monthly invoice to subscribers?We haven't built out this feature and wondering if we can push it lower in the priority...

asked Mar 25 '14 at 21:46
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James Charles
35 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
3.21K Views
Which state to incorporate in if I plan to raise money eventually? Should it be LLC, S-corp or C-corp?

Which is the best state to incorporate in if you eventually want to finance your startup with angel funding?I currently have an LLC in my state and not sure if it will be optimal. I went with an...

asked Mar 19 '14 at 21:26
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Regina Villalon
70 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
2.37K Views
Legalities with starting a gambling site that uses Bitcoin?

Since Bitcoins aren't actual currency, would it be legal to start a gambling website where it's the only accepted form of payment?I'm located in the United States.I've done some research and didn't...

asked Mar 18 '14 at 16:42
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Carolyn Luke
10 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
2.88K Views
Should you incorporate a company from the start? Or is it ok to build the MVP first?

My friend and I want to build a startup together and following the lean startup methodology.Should we spend time and money to incorporate the company and get paperwork in order prior to starting...

asked Mar 13 '14 at 13:58
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Carlos Riley
45 points

1 Votes
2 Answers
3.51K Views
Do web-builders reserve rights to websites?

I've been pondering over this one for quite a while now, and after doing some research, nothing appeared to come up. So, my questions is, when you use a website builder like webs, weebly, or other...

asked Dec 4 '13 at 13:23
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Dylan Katz
10 points

2 Votes
2 Answers
4.15K Views
Getting rid of unproductive co-founder?

Lets say you're working on a startup with someone for a couple of months and they start to lose interest and aren't pulling their weight. And it has come to a point where just talking it out isn't...

asked Mar 13 '14 at 19:03
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Anne Vickers
15 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
2.41K Views
Should I form an LLC, get a copyright, or S corp for an online educational platform?

I'm sure if I should do an LLC, S.Corp or whatnot for my online educational business. Also, I have a name, but what would I legalize it as? This has had me stumped and I want to share the idea,...

asked Mar 12 '14 at 18:31
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Imani Pope
1 point

2 Votes
2 Answers
2.98K Views
Should you register a company in your home state or a business friendly state like Nevada?

That are the pros and cons of creating your corporation in the state where you're located vs a different state like Nevada or Delaware? Which would you recommend?

asked Mar 12 '14 at 02:26
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Gloria West
50 points

0 Votes
2 Answers
3.23K Views
Selling business: is it legal for competitors to pose as potential buyers to gain insight?

I'm looking to sell a website and wondering if it's legal for a competitor to pose as a buyer to get detailed insight of how my business operates?i.e. If they have no intention of buying the...

asked Mar 11 '14 at 10:10
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Richard Clark
110 points

3 Votes
3 Answers
10.3K Views
Showing snippet of previous employer's source code during interview?

Almost all tech interviews these days ask for code samples. Would it be okay for me to show them a small snippet (a file or two) of my previous employer's source code?It's nothing that could be...

asked Mar 9 '14 at 00:53
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Patrick Stone
55 points

1 Votes
1 Answers
2.72K Views
Does creating an LLC that is a holding company for other LLCs provide additional asset protection?

Are there any benefits to creating an LLC that does nothing but act as a holding company for other LLC entities?Does that provide any added benefits in terms of asset protection?

asked Mar 5 '14 at 16:39
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Paul Newman
125 points

7 Votes
6 Answers
25.4K Views
Someone in HR leaked my salary over lunch. Now my team knows that I make 3x they do. What to do?

I work at a small startup (~30 people) and the woman that is responsible for recruiting apparently told my salary to someone while having lunch (I don't know to who).Now my department knows that I...

asked Mar 3 '14 at 20:06
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Esther Rooker
80 points

21 Votes
5 Answers
4.96K Views
Teammates have pushed me out of our venture. What to do now?

I along with 3 other people created a concept for an innovative Ecommerce platform as part of a 5 week startup pre-incubator. We had a great run and on demo day we won the audience and panel of...

asked Aug 20 '11 at 04:10
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Adjoa Opoku
106 points

2 Votes
2 Answers
3.33K Views
Do you need permission to scrape a site and build a mashup?

Should we contact any site we want to scrape to build our market intelligence app?No company would say yes if we were to contact them.While Google obviously doesn't ask for permission while...

asked Mar 1 '14 at 20:33
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Michal Harper
25 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
5.34K Views
How to protect my consultants from being poached by clients?

How would you deal with a client that is trying to poach one of your consultants (we run a ruby on rails consultancy)? My engineer was honest about it and told us upfront what was going on. It's...

asked Mar 1 '14 at 03:04
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Lester Guarino
5 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
5.51K Views
Is it legal to photograph my TV screen and use those images?

If I were to take my camera and take pictures of shows playing on my television, do I have the legal right to use those photographs online?I'm building an entertainment blog around this concept.

asked Feb 24 '14 at 17:31
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Jason Tillery
45 points

2 Votes
1 Answers
2.66K Views
Competitor signed up for my SaaS service. What do I do?

Should I be concerned that my direct competitor just signed up for a paid account on my SaaS product? Is it legal for them to do so with the intention of possibly copying our work? Is it legal for...

asked Feb 24 '14 at 13:37
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Brad Brown
30 points

0 Votes
1 Answers
2.41K Views
Creating a house cleaning service like TaskRabbit: could I hire maids as contractors or is hiring them as employees required by law?

Is it required by the California EDD to hire people as W2 employees for this case or could I just employ them as contractors? I wonder how companies like TaskRabbit and Uber are able to employ...

asked Feb 20 '14 at 17:01
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Karen Higgins
1 point

2 Votes
2 Answers
2.38K Views
Is it legal to piggy back off a successful app's name by putting a spin on it?

Since Flappy Bird was taken down from the app store, tens of similar games have popped up. Two of which are currently the top free games on the app store!Is it legitimate to piggy back off Flappy...

asked Feb 18 '14 at 17:13
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Bruce Schwartz
767 points