employment agreements

The hearty and ferocious Atlanta-based attorney Justin Daniels has advised us that the Georgia amendment for the new non-compete law has passed.

This means that any new employment agreements with non-compete and non-solicit provisions will be interpreted under the new law while the existing executed employment and partnership agreements will be interpreted under the old law.

This new law from his initial review is much more employer friendly and may present the opportunity to revise existing employment agreements in a fashion that is more favorable to employers.

This will also impact the founders of our Accelerator (startups) clients who leave established companies to strike out on their own who may find themselves in likely litigation under this new law.

Justin is thoroughly familiarizing himself with this law.

Let’s be part of the Solution.

Brian Patrick Cork

investment insurance, not

I’ve raised a lot of money for a broad-range of companies and industries over the years. And, one question that pops-up generationally is how to mitigate risk for investors.

Below is a real exchange between one of my Accelerator Element principals and myself. We have been successful recently in closing a round of $4mm through an Exec-with-Check (amazing in this economy, I know), and the question finds us again:

QUESTION:

—–Original Message—–

From: [mail: name protected]

Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 2:21 PM

To: Brian Patrick Cork

Subject: Question

“Brian,

What do companies do about the $100K limit of FDIC for deposited funds?  Do they spread the money around to multiple banks?  We will likely have $750K by the end of the month and hopefully the balance of the $4M by the end of the year (possibly middle of 1st Quarter).

[name protected]“

ANSWER:

The money is simply always at risk.

This also applies to money in savings accounts at big banks.

All of it is relative.

But, the risk is low percentage unless the vehicle is, well, risky. Banks are low risk, while ventures like DSI are deemed high risk. NOTE: The odds are your DSI is classified as high risk on the” risk pyramid (such a measurement actually exists)”, and the money will be lost.

Any effort to spread the money across multiple accounts will be compromised by cost associated with the time to manage it, and the associated fees.

One way to assuage the fear of an investor, and in this case, a new principal, would be to implement key-man insurance. Otherwise, the FDIC measure aside, there exists no other form of insurance or protection outside of best practices, great strategy, and good luck.

Brian