Law Commons^™

Shirking, Opportunism, Self-Delusion And More: The Agency Problem Today, Jayne W. Barnard

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Should Angel-Backed Start-Ups Reject Venture Capital?, Darian M. Ibrahim

Faculty Publications

The conventional wisdom is that entrepreneurs seek financing for their high-growth, high-risk start-up companies in a particular order. They begin with friends, family, and "bootstrapping" (e.g., credit card debt). Next they turn to angel investors, or accredited investors (and usually ex-entrepreneurs) who invest their own money in multiple, early-stage start-ups. Finally, after angel funds run dry, entrepreneurs seek funding from venture capitalists (VCs), whose deep pockets and connections lead the startup to an initial public offering (IPO) or sale to a larger company in the same industry (trade sale).

That conventional wisdom may have been the model for start-up success …

New Corporate Forms And Green Business, Antony Page

Faculty Publications

You want to start a business: not just an ordinary business, producing ordinary social benefit, but a dual-mission business that will both make a profit and benefit the environment. This green business, you expect, will sometimes face trade-offs between the missions, in the sense that sometimes owners' wealth and profit will have to be sacrificed to pursue environmental benefits. You're optimistic, in that you hope the business will find outside investors and will scale up easily. Moreover, you don't want to lie or even dissemble about your motives or about the business's actions. You want to be both authentic and …

Sustainable Business, Robert A. Katz, Antony Page

Faculty Publications

In recent years lawyers have become increasingly active in the field of for-profit social enterprise and sustainable business. This is nowhere more evident than in the design of new organizational forms such as the low-profit limited liability company (L3C), the flexible purpose corporation, and the benefit corporation. In this emerging field, sustainability is perhaps the most prized quality as well as its most versatile construct. This Essay contributes to the debate over new legal forms by analyzing the multiple meanings of sustainability in this context. The analysis demonstrates the importance of distinguishing between the social enterprise as a dual mission …