Speaking Engagement
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05 Sep 2025 - 12 Dec 2025
Morrison Foerster’s ScaleUp Speaker Series is a complimentary program focused on the legal side of founding a startup. This cycle equipped participants with the knowledge needed to manage the legal aspects of launching, funding, and growing a startup, while providing guidance to help them avoid common mistakes that can have serious consequences down the road.
Week 1: Incorporating a Startup – September 5, 2025
Participants learned the key differences between types of legal entities and how they impact the ability to raise capital, build a workforce, and achieve a successful company exit.
Week 1A: B-Corps, Benefit Corps, and Public Benefit Corps – September 11, 2025
Participants learned how to leverage new corporate forms to build a mission-oriented startup while retaining the ability to attract capital and grow their businesses.
Week 2: Intellectual Property Basics – September 12, 2025
Participants learned the basics of the different types of intellectual property, how they add value to a startup, and common missteps to avoid that could prevent a startup from protecting its intellectual property.
Week 3: Raising Angel Investment (Including Convertible Note Financings) – September 19, 2025
Participants learned about the most common angel investment structures and practices in seed-stage investing (including debt, equity, and hybrid approaches) and received an introduction to the preferred stock terms that form the basis of venture capital investments.
Week 4: Raising Venture Capital Investment (Deal Terms and Structures) – October 3, 2025
Participants learned the basic concepts, structures, and mathematics behind venture capital investments, including capital structures, term sheets, and capitalization and liquidation models.
Week 4A: Raising Impact Investment – October 16, 2025
Participants learned how impact investors and impact investments differ from traditional investors and venture capital investments, including key terms of impact side letters and program-related investments (PRIs).
Week 5: Most Common Legal Mistakes of Startup Entrepreneurs – October 17, 2025
Participants learned more than a dozen common legal mistakes, their impact on startups, and how to avoid them.
Week 6: Antitrust Issues for Startup Companies – October 23, 2025
Participants learned about basic antitrust laws and principles, the current antitrust enforcement landscape, antitrust risks in interactions with peers and competitors, and other topics relating to antitrust and competition in the startup space.
Week 7: Startup Equity Incentives – October 31, 2025
Participants learned the basics of customary equity incentives and how they are used to attract and retain top talent in a competitive market. The session covered founder vesting, restricted stock, and stock options (including ISOs and NSOs).
Week 8: Follow-On Venture Financing Complexities – November 7, 2025
Participants learned how startups and investors manage down rounds, recapitalizations, pay-to-play financings, and other complexities that arise in the second and subsequent rounds of financing.
Week 9: Selling Your Startup – November 14, 2025
Participants learned the differences among acquisition structures, mastered fundamental mergers and acquisitions (M&A) terms, and received an overview of definitive M&A agreements and processes.
Week 10: Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) – November 20, 2025
Participants learned about the steps involved in considering an IPO, including the process and timing, and life as a U.S. public company.
Week 11: Raising Capital from Foreign Investors: CFIUS Basics – December 5, 2025
Participants learned about the underlying regulatory framework governing foreign investment in U.S. startups, how founders can approach foreign investors for investment, and how U.S. investors typically view startups with foreign investment.
Week 12: Open Forum Recap – December 12, 2025
Participants joined an interactive open forum where they asked Morrison Foerster’'s startup attorneys questions about topics covered during earlier sessions and startup legal issues more broadly.
For more information about ScaleUp programming offered in Austin, Boston, New York, and Palo Alto, please visit MoFo ScaleUp.
