With big company legal issues, but small legal budgets, young companies need a firm with the knowledge and capabilities necessary to give them strong advice and counsel on a cost efficient and practical basis. Attorneys in Pierce Atwood's Business Group have guided young companies through every stage of their life cycles, from inspiration and formation through seed funding, to venture capital, to growth and exit through acquisition or IPO. We help our emerging company clients keep sight of not only the important issues of the moment, but also what will be important when they reach the next stage – and the ones beyond that. By taking this long-range view, we seek to lay a foundation for our clients' long-term success. We also frequently represent angel investors and venture capital funds in their investments in emerging companies, providing them with cost-effective representation they can rely on in deals where reimbursement of their fees is often capped at increasingly lower levels. Pierce Atwood's representation of both emerging companies and investors in such companies affords us a complete perspective that paves the way for successful transactions.

Some of the services we provide in this area include:

  • Choice of entity and formation
  • Employee inventions, non-disclosure and non-competition agreements
  • Equity incentive plans and awards
  • Shareholder agreements
  • Technology licensing
  • Structuring, negotiation, and documentation of angel and early- and late-stage venture capital financings
  • Office leasing
  • Federal and state securities law compliance

Do you need help getting an idea off the ground, accessing funding or addressing the basic legal requirements of running a business? Click here to learn more about how our Catalyst program can help your startup or emerging business.

Representative Experience

We have assisted BlueTarp Financial Inc., a leading provider of credit and transaction information services to the building materials industry, with numerous rounds of capital raising, including a $15 million Series D Convertible Preferred Stock issuance led by Long Ridge Equity Partners and including existing investors Trinity Ventures, Highland Capital Partners and Flybridge Capital Partners. This was paired with an expansion of its senior secured working capital line of credit. We have also assisted BlueTarp with their related technology and retail financial regulatory needs.

$15 Million Series D Convertible Preferred Stock Issue

We helped Massachusetts and California based Advanced Cell Technology grow from an angel-backed start-up through several venture rounds and ultimately to a publicly traded platform. Advanced Cell Technology is one of the world’s leading companies commercializing stem cell cloning technologies. We helped Advanced Cell with multiple rounds of private and ultimately public capital raising, numerous joint ventures, technology transfer arrangements, licensing transactions, and management of their intellectual property assets.

Angel Backed Start-Up Success

Assisting Troy Scarbrough, founder of CropLocal, Inc., in setting up his S corporation. CropLocal is a virtual farmers marketplace connecting local farmers to local consumers.

CropLocal S Corporation Set Up

Representing company in acquisition of brownfields real estate (site of former paper mill), water rights, fish egg import license, and all necessary land use and environmental permits and submerged land leases for construction and development of large land-based North Atlantic salmon farm on Penobscot Bay.

Development of World-Class Recirculating Aquaculture Farm

Gum Spirits Productions, based in Portland, Maine, has been producing independent films since 2003. Pierce Atwood saw Gum Spirits through a private offering to raise funding for the film Three Priests. We also set up the corporate structure, including with respect to investor interests, of Three Priests LLC, acted as production counsel for Three Priests, and worked with Gum Spirits to secure and negotiate distribution for the film.

Gum Spirits Productions Corporate Matters

Maine Beer Co. has grown from a small “nano” brewery producing 100 barrels of beer a year to a thriving microbrewery producing over 4000 barrels a year. To support the surge in production they expanded their staff from two to 12 full-time people and moved into a brand new 11,000 square foot production facility. As the company has grown so have its legal needs and Pierce Atwood has been there to help.

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Maine Beer Co. Growth

We assisted Moki Doorstep with corporate and intellectual property strategy and implementation related to a portable step that affixes to a vehicle door frame, offering a simple solution to reach a car roof. Moki’s Kickstarter campaign raised $110,736 from 2,220 backers in just 30 days, and was followed by an appearance on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”

Moki Doorstep in Corporate & IP Matters

As part of our Catalyst program, we represent Village Internet, LLC, a 2016 winner of the UNH Social Venture Innovation Challenge, in initial formation and general corporate matters.

Village Internet Formation & General Corporate

Representation of Xinarow LLC as participant in the Catalyst program for emerging businesses.

Xinarow LLC as Catalyst Participant