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My CTO has been arrested can I get back their shares and give them to someone else?
What do we do with their shares?
What happens if one of my shareholders dies?
Sometimes its an investor dying after theyve signed a shareholders agreement but before theyve sent their funds.
In this case, can you still get the money from the estate?
Do you have to unwind everything?
Its going to be complicated but solvable.
Can my board fire me?!
Its every founders nightmare, but it has been greatly over-dramatized.
Im done, but my co-founder isnt can I just quit and start again?
The short answer is no.
Breaking this may result in legal issues.
My previous investors refuse to agree to our next fundraise, help!
So, by not allowing you to raise, they are forcing you to shut the company.
In cases like this get legal advice before doing anything rash.
I forgot to create an option pool in my last round how do I fix that?
And thats why companies usually create a 10% pre-money option pool in their first funding round.
This lets you give shares from the option pool to employees without diluting the investors in that round.
Forgot to create that option pool?
Or you didnt make it big enough?
Or you didnt need one but now you do?
There are complicated ways to possibly preserve SEIS but these may depend on the age of the company.
Plan on $50,000 in legal fees for the Delaware flip.
And living in the US, for better or worse.
Can I pay myself in dividends instead of salary to pay less tax?
Contractors with their own business often pay themselves dividends instead of salary to reduce their tax.
Some startup founders assume this will be the same for their startup.
The problem is… it isnt.
A startup is lossmaking (thats why you raise investment!)
but you cant pay yourself dividends unless the company is profitable.
Youll make your serious money on the exit of the business, when you sell your shares then.
Ive had a huge bust-up with my co-founder and we need to break up what are my options?
For example, instead of their having 40% equity, maybe they drop down to 5%.
Ideally, you wont need to actually press this red button.
A shareholder is blocking me from doing anything how do I get rid of them?
This situation generally arises when a shareholder disagrees with the direction of the company.
Its not easy getting rid of a shareholder.
The best approach is to establish a dialogue to understand their concerns and get everyone on the same page.
Hope you found this useful.
Anthonys patent portfolio includes patents for distributed online rewards, content discovery and interactive television.
