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CASH, STOCK, AND THE PROMISSORY NOTE ARE YOUR WAR-CHEST IN A STARTUP. Most startups are cash poor. To engage professional services (lawyers, accountants, patent lawyers), try using small amounts of stock or Promissory Notes. In my first company, my IP attorney accepted 1% of penny stock in return for his help, and did fabulously. At other times, usually in sight of a financing, I offered the Promissory Note with a kicker (to add value) for people's time who were not inside the venture. These are valuable tools, and use them creatively. View in LinkedIn

CROWDFUNDING FOR BIOTECH? Read this informative article. In my view, the trajectory is inevitable. Clarify "qualified investor", close the gate to disclosure issues, and have a syndicate of thousands of investors represented by one voice, and the floodgate will be opened, not only in Bio, but in Tech broadly, the traditional hunting ground of VCs. Another flatter-earth initiative. http://lnkd.in/ret84a View in LinkedIn

VALUABLE COMMON SENSE TIPS FOR BIOTECH CEOs. A must-read. http://lnkd.in/ftGa4M View in LinkedIn

"WORK EXPANDS TO FILL THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR ITS COMPLETION" is Professor Northcote Parkinson's law. It describes the observation that busy people have time to spare. Busy people tend to organize their work efficiently, because they have to. I leaned to swim in his Guernsey UK swimming pool and never forgot this gem of wisdom. Apply it to your life and see the results. View in LinkedIn

THE COMPENSATION OF THE CEO IN PUBLIC COMPANIES is under the constant scrutiny of watchdog groups. The public company Comp Committee must determine an appropriate peer group as a comparator, and justify its percentile ranking of Executive compensation and board compensation within that comparable group. This is sufficiently complex today that hiring an expert Group to advise the committee has become necessary. Failure to do this can result in undue exposure. View in LinkedIn

CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS are the scourge of being a public company, and the majority of the time, it is scurrilous lawyers shaking the tree hard to see how much money they can get. These practices cost large sums of money and are a big management distraction. It used to be said that only Russians ate their children. But look closely at this bottom-fishing practice dressed as a White Knight, and I am sure you will arrive at a similar conclusion. Being a publicly traded company is not easy. View in LinkedIn

STEERING COMMITTEES ARE VALUABLE FOR OUTSIDE RELATIONSHIPS. Say you form a R&D partnership with a big company who funds your research in return for an Option. A Steering Committee is critical to establish criteria for success, and to determine a decision tree for all possible data outcomes. You need to protect yourself from a bad result leading to a surprise termination of the relationship, an event that can be at worst disasterous, and at best very hard to manage. You need to be jointly managing these expectations and be on the same page at every step. View in LinkedIn

IF YOU ARE WAITING FOR A CRITICAL EVENT TO HAPPEN, most new investors will also await the news. You are obliged to reveal material pending events, so you cannot hide it from them. Thus you can easily be caught in a double-bind if the critical event is beyond your control. View in LinkedIn

THIRD PARTY VALIDATION can be golden. This means you have struck a deal with a Cognizant within your field, preferably a big and well-known player. Once you have achieved this, investors understand that you have passed Due Diligence with this established company, and feel much more comfortable championing your cause internally at their investment committee. For all these reasons, getting a deal with a company in your sector can be a strong funding trigger. View in LinkedIn

WHEN A BUSINESS GOES SOUTH the entrepreneur is faced by a dilemma regarding Friends and Family (F&F) investors. A few entrepreneurs feel that these F&F took their risks based on greed and hopes of gain, and that was the name of the game. Other entrepreneurs feel an ethical obligation to make these F&F whole again. When entrepreneurs act ethically, they can go back to the same pool later, and future investors do not discover this nasty secret in their past. Which choice would you make? View in LinkedIn