So far, lots of drinks and a great view:
17:52 Things are heating up:
18:14 Talk has started. A broad brush overview of what you have to do to start a business. Half the audience is currently involved in starting a new company.
18:19 Considering the life cycle of an entrepreneurial business. Revenues resemble an inverse bell curve. (i.e. MBM recognises that startups have no budget?) Also, my Peroni is running low.
18:27 Partnerships (as a form of business) are still governed by a 19th century law. Did not know that. Also, limited companies, in practice, often offer little protection to startup founders because banks and others require personal guarantees. Lots of questions from the crowd.
18:41 Note to self: trademarks almost always trump trading names, even if a business with the name existed before the trademark. In other news, beer before pizza creates much jolliness.
18:55 In your shareholder agreement, a good leaver is someone who leaves your founding team early, but on good terms. For instance, if they die. Mysteriously.
19:03 I have always wondered whether lawyers are too paranoid about founders falling out with each other. It stands to reason that the bulk of a lawyer’s time will be spent on cases where there are conflicts between founders, while the true majority of cases might never need much legal support at all. Hmm.
19:24 Suggestion from the crowd: let’s pick a problem one of us is facing, and absolutely laser it to bits! Dug’s going to send out a survey for other suggestions.
20:57 And it ends thusly: three slices of pizza later, with lots of good socialising and a bottle of fizz.
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P.S. You who were also there: what did you think? There are lots of startup events in Edinburgh; is Tech Law for Startups a needed addition, or was it not what you hoped?
StartupCafe 
I was there – I thought it was a good introduction to a broad range of issues. I’m looking forward to more detailed sessions in the future, there were some good suggestions from the group!
Sorry I didn’t get to say hello – I think I’ve met the rest of the StartupCafe team but somehow we never ended up in the same conversation this evening!
It was a great introduction to an area I really don’t know much about, with some good warnings of potential hiccups. I’ll definitely go along to future events. Good to talk to everyone, too!
And I did wonder about all the fallings-out: put me off any partnerships!
[…] first Tech Law for Startups meetup last night. For a full account of the event check out the live-blog from StartupCafe which includes some pictures. Our host Dug Campbell from MBM Commercial gave a really good […]
Great to see everyone there – thanks for coming along! There were some good comments and tips from the group which will hopefully prove to be valuable to some who haven’t been through the process before and, as hoped, the group seemed (to me) to be fairly informal. It was very much an introduction and now it’s really up to the community to drive this along by starting to ask for the subjects they want to look at for further sessions. An enjoyable night for me!
Awesome post Hilary. Not sure how you managed to balance the live blogging and chatting but you’re quite the multitasker I hear!
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Wow, fantastic blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is magnificent, as well as the content!. Thanks For Your article about Live blogging from Tech Law for Startups StartupCafe .
[…] first Tech Law for Startups meetup last night. For a full account of the event check out the live-blog from StartupCafe which includes some pictures. Our host Dug Campbell from MBM Commercial gave a really good […]