You May Want to Keep Some Secrets From the Robots

Let’s talk about Large Language Models (LLMs)—you know, those remarkably helpful AI tools that can draft your emails, refine your pitch deck, (maybe even help you write a blog post…) and, in certain cases, have the unintended consequence of undermining your patent strategy.  A true multitasker.

If you’re working on a new invention or idea, you’ve probably considered pasting your idea into an AI tool to “see what it thinks.” Maybe you wanted help sharpening the concept, drafting a description, or stress-testing your thinking. If nothing else, your friendly AI bot is bound to tell you what a great idea you’ve got so that you’ll like it even more!

MN Cup Applications Are Open!

It’s that time of year again!  No, not eggnog and carols, not leaves falling, not cabin season (quite yet…), but time for aspiring entrepreneurs to apply for entry in the MN Cup.  For those who are not frequent readers of entreVIEW and don’t know about the MN Cup, it is the largest annual business plan competition in the country for emerging entrepreneurs.

Purple Rain and Prince as Entrepreneur

Last night, I had the privilege to attend Opening Night of the world premiere of the Broadway Bound musical, “Purple Rain” at the Historic State Theatre in Minneapolis. You can see from the photo that I even “glammed up” my outfit a bit for the premiere and post-show party at First Avenue! I guess being the current Board Chair of Hennepin Arts made me want to fully embrace the opportunity!

A little background. Frequent readers of entreVIEW all know I am a musical theatre enthusiast. I’ve posted about musicals more than a dozen times over the year…even including this post back in 2012 about a musical that I have written. You may not know that I am also a huge Prince enthusiast!  Of course, as someone who grew up in the Twin Cities and witnessed the rise of the Purple One to superstardom, I would have been in the minority if I hadn’t been. The original “Purple Rain” movie was an iconic moment. I saw it opening night (and another time or two) and the album (yes, it was vinyl) and cassette (what else would one have listened to in your car?) were pretty much on repeat throughout the second half of 1984.

Joy: The Musical: An Entrepreneurial Story

People who know me, even just a little bit, know that I’m a passionate fan and supporter of musical theatre. Truth is that my wife and I (two lawyers with a spreadsheet) have seen just under 800 unique musicals together in our adult lives. 

Even if you don’t know me but have been a regular reader of entreVIEW (are there any regular readers?), you’d also know this because I have frequently written about musical theatre for this blog, including my very first real post on this blog over 14 years ago, which was about the Spider-Man Musical. I’ve also written about other musicals, including "Finding Neverland," "Ernest Shackleton Loves Me," "Matilda," and couple of favorites, "Here Lies Love," and, of course "Hamilton." In case that isn’t enough to show my passion for musicals I’ve also written about the musical I wrote, "Pickle-Chiffon Pie: The Musical," which has now been produced three times!  

Maybe You Should File That Form D After All?

As a lawyer who frequently works with entrepreneurs raising capital, we are often called on to assist with compliance with state and federal securities laws. For those who don’t know, when you sell a “security” in a private offering, you need to have exemptions from both state and federal registration requirements for offerings of securities. In case you were wondering, a “security” is any instrument that has a future value tied to the success of the enterprise (e.g. common or preferred stock, promissory notes (convertible or otherwise), or SAFEs).

While there are other exemptions available in certain situations, by far the most common exemptions used are those under Regulation D. The SEC’s fiscal 2023 report indicates that $2.7 trillion has been raised in Rule 506(b) offerings, with an additional $169 billion in Rule 506(c) offerings (using general solicitation and verification of accredited status of investors), and $258 million in Rule 504 offerings.

Another CTA Update: Anybody Getting Whiplash Yet…?

The injunction from required reporting detailed in this post of December 4, which was then lifted as mentioned in this subsequent post on December 24, and as detailed in this client alert, was put back in place as described in this post from last Friday! If that’s not enough to give an entrepreneur with a small business whiplash, I’m not sure what is.

The current bottom line is that no filings are currently required under the CTA while the injunction is in place. Reportedly, the next court hearing on this matter has been scheduled for late March, so maybe enough time to get out of the neck brace…

A Post for National Pickleball Day (August 8, 2024)!

As frequent entreVIEW readers know, I am among the legions of people who became pickleball enthusiasts over the last several years, many of us (present company included) spurred on by the global pandemic. The statistics show that pickleball remains the fastest growing sport in the US, with about 50 million people in the US having played in the last 12 months, an explosive annual growth rate (over 85% in 2022). Contrary to popular perception, the average age of these players is 35 years old.

“MoviePass, MovieCrash,” an Interesting Exploration of the Entrepreneurial Roller Coaster

Stuck with a rainy Sunday afternoon this past weekend, I found myself landing on the just released HBO documentary “MoviePass, MovieCrash.” I didn’t really know much about the story in advance of my viewing, although I did recall a company that had launched a moviegoing subscription service about a decade ago. Maybe it’s my interest in the entrepreneurial experience, honed by a few decades of helping entrepreneurs build companies, but I found the movie quite interesting. Spoiler alert—if you want to watch the film (which I think it is worth your time), don’t read any further!

Last Call for 2024 MN Cup Submissions

The MN Cup, a program of the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, is the largest statewide startup competition in the country! Since its founding in 2005, it has served over 0,000 entrepreneurs and awarded over $5 million in cash prizes; in addition, MN Cup alumni have raised over $1 billion in capital.

Corporate Transparency Act Unconstitutional?

Just last Friday, a Federal District Court in Alabama ruled that the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) is unconstitutional. For those who haven’t been following the implementation of the CTA—which you could have done right here at entreVIEW back in this August post or in this December post describing updated rules for 2024, or even this Lathrop GPM client alert from all the way back in June of last year—it is a potentially big deal to small companies.

Keep that Bot out of your Boardroom

I regularly attend the Board meetings of the entrepreneurial companies I work with. I find it is a good way for me, as outside counsel, to stay abreast of the business’s strategies, key challenges, and opportunities. I also frequently serve as “Meeting Secretary,” keeping the minutes of the meeting.

At the risk of sounding too lawyerly, recording accurate minutes of Board meetings is one important part of maintaining good governance for your entity. This can be important for a variety of reasons, including holding officers and directors accountable for their actions and helping to prevent fraud and mismanagement, as well as mitigating risks of certain types of litigation, including corporate veil piercing.

Musicians and Entrepreneurship

Frequent readers of my entreVIEW posts (all three of you) know that I’m also a musical theatre enthusiast. The truth is, I’m just a fan of music in general. I have been known to curate playlists (long before they were known as playlists) for different activities and like to have music playing at every opportunity (even sometimes on the Pickleball court!).

Sometimes, my love for music and musical theatre can even intersect. The jukebox musical has become increasingly prevalent on (and off) Broadway. This genre includes this season’s:

It’s Whamaggedon Season Again…

If you are currently a participant in “Whamageddon,” do NOT click on this link. If you don’t know what Whamageddon is, it is a viral contest that has become popular every holiday season. The basic rules, which can be found here, involve trying to avoid hearing Wham’s “Last Christmas” (the original, not a cover) from December 1st through December 24th each year.

Under the “official” rules, you aren’t supposed to deliberately send your friends to “Whamhalla” (where participants go each year once they have heard the song). However, the Wikipedia page suggests that you could send someone a “Wham-bomb” by setting their smart device to play “Last Christmas” as an alarm on December 1st! Sometimes, people play with other songs, like Mariah Carey’s ubiquitous “All I Want For Christmas is You” or, in New Zealand, "Snoopy's Christmas."

Pickleball Just Keeps Getting Bigger

Frequent readers of my entreVIEW posts (a small but loyal group, no doubt) may recall that earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time before vaccination had become widely available, I wrote this post about my budding enthusiasm for Pickleball. My post detailed how Pickleball had become widely recognized as a perfect “pandemic pastime” and was showing explosive growth as the fastest growing sport in the US. I also detailed some Pickleball-related entrepreneurial ventures.

While I have become a true Pickleball enthusiast and continue to play regularly (having taught at least 50 Pickleball virgins to play), I couldn’t have anticipated that Pickleball was going to rapidly become such big business! I recently saw this article, which details a whole bunch of ways that my new favorite sport (my old favorites are still volleyball and slalom waterskiing) is becoming big business. There are dozens of new companies selling paddles and accessories, hundreds of venues opening around the country, technologists developing software to facilitate Pickleball enthusiasm (court finders, scoring assistants, and even “Tinder-like” apps designed to help you find Pickleball playing partners), along with tournaments and professional Pickleball.

Minneapolis/St. Paul Ranked High for Startups:

As a lawyer who works with startups for a living, I wasn’t surprised to see that M25, an early-stage venture firm based in Chicago that invests in tech startups headquartered in the Midwest, has (again) ranked the Twin Cities #2 among its Best of the Midwest Startup Cities Rankings. I’ve known for a couple of decades that the Twin Cities is a pretty great place to start a business and this report just validates that.

The rankings are rooted in three general areas: the amount of startup activity, how supportive the area’s ecosystem is for startups, and the general business climate. The top two (Chicago at #1) have been consistent among the 59 metropolitan areas ranked since these rankings started in 2017. Pittsburgh, which had consistently been ranked third fell to fourth behind a rising Indianapolis, which really benefitted from aggressive funding availability through programs (direct investment, angel tax credit, etc.)

What Can Wordle Teach Us About Entrepreneurship?

If you haven’t been living under a rock, you probably know that Wordle is an online word puzzle game that was invented by a software engineer, Josh Wardle, for him and his partner to play. Because of its simplicity, setup, and social attributes, the number of daily players (including me) has skyrocketed from about 90 on November 1 of last year, to 300,000 by New Year’s Day, to over 2,000,000 only a week later!

While that seems like a lot, it still isn’t as many people who at least occasionally play Words with Friends or Candy Crush. One of the biggest appeals of Wordle is that, unlike the countless hours that some people (you know who you are) spend on those other games, you can play it every day and only have to invest about 5 minutes.

Can’t Afford a New Robot for Christmas? How about the SEC Navigator?

I recently came across this article from earlier this year regarding the “Coolest Robots in 2021.” This isn’t just about robots that can vacuum your carpeting, although I understand that Roomba now has built in Artificial Intelligence to avoid having a pooptastrophe when it smears your dog’s feces all over the place. These robots can help do laundry, unload your dishwasher, eliminate germs (something that remains top of mind almost two years into a global pandemic), or replace your companion animal.

Pandemic Observations from NYC

Frequent readers may recall that I have spent each of the last 35 years (except 2020!) in New York City for Thanksgiving. Yes, I have in-laws who reside on Long Island and it was especially nice to see them last week after having not done so in two years!

My quick observations about NYC during the current phase of the COVID-19 pandemic are hopeful, although I’ll admit that my trip was on the front end of the recent news about the latest Greek-letter variant, Omicron. Not being a student of the Greek language, I didn’t even know there was such a letter—one that seems destined to now become a regular part of my vocabulary, at least for a while.

Minnesota Cup Finals: A Clean Sweep for the Student Division

As frequent readers of entreVIEW will know from many prior posts since the early days of our blog, the our Entrepreneurial Services Group at Lathrop GPM has been a supporter and sponsor of the Minnesota Cup since its early days.

In case you aren’t familiar with the program fostered by the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management, the Minnesota Cup is a business plan competition (purportedly the largest in the country) to help identify promising Minnesota-based start-up businesses. Over the years, over 16,000 businesses have participated in the competition, which has awarded prize money of about $3 million dollars. It isn’t just about prize money because the competition also helps entrepreneurs hone their business plans and pitch deck and also access mentorship and other valuable connections. The competition reports that Minnesota Cup alumni companies have raised nearly $400 million in capital! 

There are currently nine divisions in the competition and members of Lathrop GPM serve as judges in the general, high tech, and impact ventures divisions. Yours truly also has been serving as a judge in the student division for the last several years. It is always impressive to see great ideas from undergraduates and graduate students, many of whom have made considerable progress on their plans. This year’s crop of competitors in the student division was especially strong, making the judging that much more difficult.

What Can an Entrepreneur Learn from the Olympics?

There’s been a lot written about how nobody is watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Yes, I know they are happening now in 2021 because of the COVID pandemic, but they are still calling them the 2020 games.) Well, that hasn’t been the case in my household. We’ve enjoyed watching all sorts of competition so far, especially volleyball (a family favorite), swimming, and, of course, St. Paul’s own, Suni Lee, the first Hmong-American Olympian, who won the gold medal in the Olympic women’s gymnastics all-around!

In any event, seeing a blog post on my “to do” list for this week in the middle of my Olympic binging led me to search for interesting Olympic entrepreneurial tidbits. What I found was quite a bit of content, including this article about Olympic athletes who are thriving as entrepreneurs. While many of the individuals listed had later success in sports-related businesses, their successes also included perfume, coffee, and the well-known George Foreman grill. 

There are also many articles about lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from the habits of Olympic athletes (in articles like this one, this one, and, more recently, this one or this one).  Let me summarize some of the common (and relatively obvious) takeaways, since you may not have time to read them all:

• It takes a team to be successful—don’t try and do it all yourself.
• Follow your passion—trying to build a business is a challenge in itself, but growing a business in something you are not passionate about is even more difficult!
• It takes hard work to be successful and you should be preparing to succeed from the very start.
• Stay focused on the long goal—ye
  ars of training lead to Olympic success; it doesn’t happen overnight. Of course, you can always take the advice of Mark Spitz, the most successful American Olympic swimmer of all time—with 7 gold medals, all in world record time, at the 1972 Munich Olympics—until a guy named Michael Phelps hit the pool. Spitz’s take? “I’m not concerned with tomorrow, but with what goes on today.”
• Flexibility is key—learn to roll with the punches because nothing goes as planned (remember all those hours training to culminate in Tokyo in the summer of 2020?).