Des Moines Startup Attorneys & Lawyers

What is a Delaware Entity Search?

A Delaware entity search is used to look up a company name in Delaware and make sure the name isn't already used by another company. However, before getting started, it is important to understand why businesses choose to incorporate in Delaware to begin with.

Why Delaware?

Delaware is the most popular state in the nation for forming a corporation. Why? Because Delaware’s corporation laws are written to provide a greater degree of flexibility to corporation founders in regard to the structuring of director and shareholder rights, the terms of a company’s classes of stock, and for investments, mergers, acquisitions and takeovers.

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What Are Class A Shares?

Class A shares are common or preferred stocks that offer special benefits to owners. Class A shares are the best class of stock. Upper- level management, executives, owners, and founders of the company usually hold this kind of stock. It offers the highest level of voting rights, too.

Why Do Class A Shares Matter?

Classes of stock often have ownership restrictions. They also might have different purposes. For instance, some stock classes are for investment purposes. Some sell at different prices, and some pay different dividends.

Class A shares offer the most benefits. Still, any good company's stock classes shouldn't matter to investors. All the stocks have some value, just not the same benefits. The stock class doesn't affect the average investor's profit share. That'

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What is Required to Value a Company?   

To value any company requires applying one of several processes and corresponding set of procedures that will help you to determine valuation.    

What are the Most Common Processes Used in the Valuation of Companies?   

To value a company, you must determine the most suitable process to use, based on the type of business and the business’s liquidity. There are three common processes: asset-based, market-based and income-based. Here's how each one works:

1.  Asset-Based

The asset-based process places dollar values on both the company’s assets and liabilities. The basic formula for this valuation process can be stated as:

Assets – Liabilities = Company Value

Valuation factors to consider with the asset-based process inc

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Updated November 19, 2020:

What is an Operating Agreement?

An operating agreement is a written legal agreement among the members of your Limited Liability Company (LLC). The operating agreement explains how your company will be run, the rights and responsibilities of LLC members, the process adding and removing LLC members, and other important operating rules. While LLC operating agreements are not mandatory in all states, it's generally advisable for LLCs to have an operating agreement in place.

LLC operating agreements can be created either at the time of the LLC’s formation or at any time after formation.

Other names for

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Burn Rate: What Is It?

Burn rate is how quickly a company spends its cash reserves before it generates positive cash flow. This rate is tracked each month, so if the burn rate for a company is $50,000, it means that the company is spending $50,000 each month.

The two types of burn rates are gross burn and net burn. Gross burn includes all of the money a company spends in a given month in order to run the business. Net burn is the amount of money that the company loses.

Let's say that a small startup spends the following every month:

• $6,000 for office space/rent
• $18,000 for employee salaries and benefits
• $2,000 on server costs
• $1,500 on miscellaneous

That means that each month, the company's gross burn rate is $27,500. However, if the company is producing some income, you can subtract that amount to get the net burn. So if the company earns $15,000 in the month, the net bur

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