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Doing Business in Mexico can be very profitable...if done right

652_ Doing Business in Mexico can be very profitable...if done right
Starting a business in Mexico can easily take two plus months just to get the doors open. If you are going to start doing business in Mexico through an M&A it's a great deal trickier. Troy Braegger of Holme Roberts & Owen discussed the ins and outs with Daniel del Rio (Abogado) of Basham, Ringe y Correa, S.C. in Mexico City. They focused a great deal on the cultural differences and then went on to a macro overview of Mexico going back to the beginning of NAFTA and up through the economic challenges in 2008-09. In Daniel's presentation at the HRO offices in downtown Denver, he outlined the top M&A considerations: Historical background of M&A in Mexico; Necessary transitions; The challenges & trends; The difficulties of regulations, current business trends; Key sectors; Decision making and negotiations; Understanding client's needs; a different time pace; Power of Attorney challenges; The power of attorney differences are one example out of many that if understood and handled properly can make a significant difference in becoming a profitable center. Legally speaking there is so much more, listen now.
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP || It's the Law Channel || Basham, Ringe y Correa || Find It Page || - Channel:Law Bytes= 11793870 > 4.20.09 LISTEN

“Colorado Rising” Live Weekly Internet TV - Every Monday

“Colorado Rising”
Live Weekly TV show
Every Monday From 2:00 - 3:00pm
(Watch-Live-On-Your-Computer)

632_ Colorado Rising (w3w3 Tv) is mobilizing organizations in Colorado to support businesses, government and education for the good of all. We also want to ensure prosperity and smart growth, while protecting Colorado's uniquely special way of life…this is our opportunity.
Video call in via Skype .

Monday, March 9th:  2:00 - 3:00 PM
W3W3 LIve Webcast at w3w3.com

Colorado Rising Monday, March 2, 2009 Guest Lineup!

2:00 Jason Haislmaier – Holme Roberts & Owen
2:15 Sue Wyman – Jivaro Group & CTP (Communications Tech Pros)
2:30 Don McCubbrey Daniels at DU & Global Text
2:45 Brian Schwartz – Author 50 Interviews

Related Links: Broadband Video || Colorado Rising Archives || Economy Builders || > Channel:ColoradoRising 3/9/09 - Show ARCHIVES

Going global necessitates a comprehensive arbitration clause

629_ Going global necessitates a comprehensive arbitration clause
International arbitration is private dispute resolution that the parties agree that they are going to submit their disputes by contract to one or more arbitrators to resolve the dispute. The advantage to arbitration internationally is that the United States is not a party to any treaty with anybody, not even Canada, which would make our court judgments enforceable abroad. For that reason international arbitration is crucial. “International Arbitration is crucial for business today!” David Wilson, Holme Roberts & Owen partner with guest Josefa Sicard-Mirabal, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Josefa went onto explain, "There is no international commercial court of compulsory jurisdiction that would allow us to go to it to resolve our disputes. So, international arbitration comes to level the playing field. You don’t go to anyone’s specific court, but you create a private court where you select the arbitrators, and under certain rules of arbitration, you run the process. ICC advises that from the beginning, you insert an arbitration clause." Listen for specific insights...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP || ICC Home || ICC Arbitration || Josefa Sicard-Mirabal Bio || It's the Law Channel ||  Channel:CTP Bytes= 11105910 > 3.2.09 LISTEN

Colorado Company Taps Into the Best and Brightest the State has to Offer

587_ Colorado Company Taps Into the Best and Brightest the State has to Offer 
Here's an interesting switch. Doug Kittelsen, CTO and Chief Product Officer of FTEN and Gary LaFever, FTEN In-house General Counsel, explained that, "FTEN provides global technology solutions that process millions of securities transactions, including over 20% of the entire US Equities daily volume." However the company decides to buck the trends as it related to their workforce. "A lot of publicity has surrounded the decision by many companies to outsource development to Asia – and with that the corresponding loss of domestic jobs, etc. Like many other companies, we previously had a development team in India. What we learned was that because our industry was moving so quickly - it was not possible to properly utilize the strength of the Indian team - they worked best with detailed requirement documents and longer delivery schedules than our industry allowed. The Indian team cost less for more staff - but we have found that it is better to have fewer stronger resources that have the creativity and insights to solve problems in new and unique ways. We saw a market opportunity in the ultra fast market and made the strategic decision to shut down our office in India and start our new product line in Colorado with a team of hand picked elite developers. Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen - Boulder, works with many startups, but pointed out that the success and amazing story about FTEN raising capital took an unusual route. Listen now we can all learn from this...
Related Links: FTEN Home || It's the Law || Holme Roberts & Owen || Podcast Directory ||  Channels: It's the Law Bytes:10003333- 11/17/08 LISTEN

Colorado Company Looks at Raising Capital in Silicon Valley and CO

Back in the 'dotcom' era, Matt McAdams raised raised capital. Today, Matt is Founder and CTO of TrackVia and pointed out that in 1999 it was a great deal easier to raise venture capital then it is today. TrackVia is a client of Mark Weakley, Partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder. Mark and Matt discussed some very important 'do's' and 'don'ts' about raising capital in the Silicon Valley vs. Colorado. Here are a few questions that were covered. How did you go about getting meetings with VC firms? Is it effective just to submit a business plan through the firm’s website, or did it require personal introductions and/or more creative routes of reaching the firm? Does it matter whether you’re meeting with an associate at the firm, or with one of the partners? In other words, should you push to have a partner attend your meeting? What was your experience like in Silicon Valley, as a Colorado-based company? Do you think it’s more effective to identify a list of just a few VC firms that look like a great fit, and really work on those firms, or is it better to cast a very wide net and take every meeting you can get? Matt feels strongly about management teams, personal introductions, persistence and improving what you are selling. VCs currently want to see real business traction from startups, in the form of product users/customers. Listen to Matt's discussion and you will hear some very practical, pragmatic thoughts from an entrepreneur who has raised money recently, as well as back in the dotcom boom days.
Related Links: TrackVia || PodCast Directory || It's the Law Channel || Holme Roberts & Owen ||   > Bytes: 15767715 > LISTEN 9/2/08

Using Consulting and Angel Funding to Bootstrap a Vertical Strategy

AWhere was formed as a pure consulting company (GIS: Geospatial Information Systems), discovered a pain point, and built a product to address that pain. Mark Weakley, Partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder and Larry asked John Corbett, Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board, President of AWhere along with Jim Pollock, President of Vertical Market Development for AWhere how AWhere used consulting and later angel funding to build their vertical strategy. They raised better than 600K and talked about what they are doing to secure a 'bigger raise' and other funding issues. They talked about converting the company from a consulting company to a product company. They talked about taking advantage and riding the coattails of larger players: exploiting the hype and educational wave that Google Maps and MS Virtual Earth is creating in the location intelligence and location services market.  They showed how this dovetails into multiple possible exit strategies without worrying about the exit. They also described their vertical strategy:  dividing their market into a series of vertical industries, then using Angel funding to accelerate their entry into the first two.  Once they validated the first 2, they'll have confidence and working business models to more aggressively attack future verticals. There's more, LISTEN...

Related Links: AWhere || HRO Named Go-To Firm || It's the Law Channel || Holme Roberts & Owen || Bytes: 14159039 >  LISTEN 9/2/08

$100K in Angel Money and an Additional $650K with More to Come

"Here’s a piece of advice, don’t waste your time talking to a lot of west coast investors if you don’t have a pre-existing relationship.  Focus your attention on people that know you and have known you in the past, and you’ll find yourself with a lot more traction in a less time,” says Ari Newman and Tom Chikoore co founders of Filtrbox. Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder has been working with Filtrbox and knew this was the type of story we like to cover. In late summer as TechStars was wrapping up Tom and Ari brought in about $100K in angel money. That carried them through the end of the year when Filtrbox started some serious fund raising for a seed round. "Fund raising takes way longer than most people think, it’s harder than most people think. It’s incredibly stressful and to actually try to run the business and be fund raising – it’s hard to put your head in two places at once. And if you’re a tiny little startup and you have no capital... flying around, trying to meet investors – ooh!  Travel and expense dollars can burn your development budget." So far they have raised around $620K. Their investors are both institutional investors and angels. They have quite a story...listen now..
Related Links: Filtrbox Home || HRO Named Go-To Firm || It's the Law Channel || Holme Roberts & Owen || > Bytes: 12801570 LISTEN 8/18/08

Mergers & Acquisitions in Today's Middle Market

KPMG LLP and Holme Roberts & Owen LLP conducted a forum providing insight into competing for acquisitions in the middle and lower markets. There was a panel of dealmakers discussing sourcing and closing middle market transactions in a turbulent deal environment, including insights into financing options in the continuing tight credit market. They also offered perspectives on key diligence issues focused on limiting exposure to legal and financial risk in today's M&A environment. Prior to the panel, Gino Maurelli, HRO and Brian Cox, KPMG shared the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective Deal Teams"...#1 Early Involvement of Advisors; #2 Go Slow to Go Fast; #3 Scheduled Status Updates #4 Scalability; #5 Scalability; #6 Post-Mortem/After Action Review; #7 Leverage Advisers. The room was packed and everyone was listening and taking notes. Listen to this discussion with Gino and Brian...and yes, take notes. *Check out Event Photos! -   LISTEN
Related Links: KPMG || HRO || ACG Channel || It's the Law Channel || - Bytes: 1251014

The Music Industry Fights Piracy for Survival

In the nine years following the development of Napster, the music industry has changed dramatically. To match the new methods of downloading music illegally, there are new means of detecting such activity and new legal ramifications. Richard Gabriel, attorney with Holme Roberts & Owen goes on to point out other dicey issues. "The ethics of downloading music illegally and who should be responsible for such activity continue to be debated. This debate relates to the broader question of whether the music industry's business model, i.e. charging for the distribution of music-faces an existential threat not merely from piracy, but the proliferation of artists willing to share their music for free." Whether or not individuals can justify downloading copyrighted music from peer-to-peer networks or other outlets, the fact remains that this conduct is illegal. To underscore that message, the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) has brought thousands of lawsuits against individuals who have violated the copyright law. At the same time, organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have suggested that the advent of file sharing cannot be stopped by litigation. What if it was your music? LISTEN
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law Channel || Electronic Frontier Foundation || Silicon Flatirons || - Bytes: 24960839

Effective Use of Equity Incentives - Challenges and Choices

Compensation and Effective use of Equity Incentives were discussed in detail with Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder with Irene Gallagher, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Denver. There are three main compensation forms: 1.) Stock Options [most familiar to employees] 2.) Then we’ve got Restricted Stock which can either be bonuses or require payment from the employee; 3.) This category gives us more flexibility in how we structure the actual measure of the incentive – and that would be in the ‘Phantom Stock’ or stock appreciation rights. Issues will vary with Common Law Employees, Contract employees, and Independent Contractors. Mark and Irene are often asked, “How can the state or the IRS know if the person is an independent contractor or not? We have an agreement, the employee signed it, isn’t that good enough?” Clearly this is not good enough. The time comes when you no longer need the employee. Without thought the employee files for unemployment insurance and that’s how the state finds out about them. “Backdoor Discovery”. Now the state can come in and look at all of your employees, reclassify them and you could be looking at back wages, potentially overtime, penalties and interest – it can really stack up. That “Backdoor Discovery” is a sure fire way to get multiple agencies on your coattails. You not only have the state level revenue agency and the department of labor, you also have the federal level because the Social Security Administration is going to want their cut of what you should have been paying in the payroll taxes all along. Then there's 409A...listen now.
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen || It's the Law || U.S. Commercial Service || Entrepreneurs ||
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