Startups &
Venture Capital
Our experienced team provides strategic, practical legal and business advice to help entrepreneurs survive the realities of startup environments. For investors, our team offers complete lifecycle guidance and access to the most active venture capital markets worldwide.
Navigating Legal Waters for Investors and Entrepreneurs
Godfrey & Kahn helps startups and venture capital investors with efficient, sophisticated, and experienced legal services and access to critical professional resources.
Our clients benefit from our connections with entrepreneurs across the Midwest and our ability to draw on the experience of Godfrey & Kahn attorneys in various specialty areas across our offices.
Launching Your Startup with Confidence
We provide practical legal and business advice to startups and emerging growth companies at every stage of their business. Our dedicated team of startup and venture capital (SVC) lawyers utilize cutting-edge knowledge, tools, and insights to meet the realities of an ever-changing startup landscape.
Our attorneys use a collaborative approach to help grow our clients from formation to Fortune 500 or exit. We advise our clients in vital areas such as:
- Entity selection and formation
- Corporate governance
- Debt and equity financing
- Intellectual property filing, protection, and licensing
- Equity compensation, employee benefits, and bonus arrangements
- Employment issues and visas
- Debt and equity financing
- Data privacy and cybersecurity
- Regulatory compliance
- Securities law compliance
- Tax reduction techniques and tax credits for new ventures
- Commercial contracts with suppliers, customers, and other business partners
- Agreements with accelerators and advisors
- Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE), Qualified New Business Venture (QNBV), and similar certifications
Fuel for Growth
Our SVC attorneys have significant experience in advising individual angel investors, angel groups, family offices, venture capital funds, and corporate venture capital investors in a wide range of investment activities.
Godfrey & Kahn advises investors in many key areas:
- Fund formation and maintenance
- Equity, debt, and convertible instruments
- Leading transactions or making co-investments
- Financing structures (angel, seed and later stage rounds, loans, mezzanine debt, PIPE transactions)
- Securities law compliance
- U.S. and international tax and regulatory compliance (foreign investors, pension funds, bank affiliates, and other regulated investors)
- Conducting due diligence on target companies
- Reviewing hedge fund and venture capital investment documents and negotiating side letters
- Incentive structures for fund advisors
- Best practices for corporate governance and investment monitoring
Join us at Project Innovate!
Godfrey & Kahn provides far more than just legal services.
We offer all entrepreneurs the opportunity to network and deepen their entrepreneurial knowledge at our Project Innovate events.
These meetups cover a wide range of topics designed to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and connect to other resources. Our clients also have access to a vast network of business resources as their businesses launch and grow, including angel and venture capital investors, investment bankers, accountants, and consultants.
We look forward to helping you form, fund, and grow your business.
Looking for More?
Our attorneys write on a variety of topics and provide engaging educational opportunities through free webinars and seminars enabling you to stay up-to-date with the most current developments, trends, and legal issues affecting your business.
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