Many things have been said, written, speculated upon, rumored, and of course imagined when talking about electronic currencies (the vast majority referring to Bitcoin). The instability, the volatility, the uncertainty, and not to mention the early adopters bringing infamy to electronic currencies with their shady business dealings, have given us at least some kind of footing to … [Read more...]
About Willow Novell
There’s A New Sheriff In Town: What Does Mayor-elect Ada Colau Mean For Barcelona Entrepreneurship?
Last Sunday, the townspeople of Barcelona elected Ada Colau as their new leader to run City Hall for the next 4 years. This act represents the democracy-in-action and recognizes the freedom of the people, but it may also signal drastic changes in the way our city works. Barcelona has been for most of its time under the government of central-left party PSC, and run by a … [Read more...]
10 “Intangibles” That Determine The Value Of Your Startup
Does your startup have the potential to join the Billion Dollar Club? The only way to find out is by fully understanding the value of your company and the market in which you operate. Obvious? Maybe. Of course, if you're already a publicly traded company the market determines your value, but what if you're a startup and you need to set a value for your next financing … [Read more...]
How To Create A Phantom Stock Option Plan For Your Startup
In the first post, How To Create A Stock Option Plan For Your Startup, we covered what Stock Option Plans (SOP) are, how they work, and how to use them to reward your employees and collaborators who take the leap of faith in your early stage project. It all seemed very nice and easy, right? But what happens if we want to award SOPs to our "helping hands" but we don’t want to … [Read more...]
How To Create A Stock Option Plan For Your Startup
More often than not, especially in the early stages of your startup, you don’t have enough money to compensate the people that are helping your company grow. And even if you do have some early funds, you probably need to spend it on banal things such as marketing, software development, office space, or that growing stack of bills, otherwise there will be no company at … [Read more...]
Why The Shareholders Agreement Is The Most Important Step For Early Startups
The road to startup success is paved with failure. Sometimes it's outside of your control; wrong market, bad timing, lack of funding, poor leadership, but in my experience, all too often the reason startups meet their demise is due to internal relations. Now, lets picture your start-up. Of course you probably don't have any money, therefore you don't need to put all those … [Read more...]
Understanding Spain’s War On Uber: Is it Progress or are they Cheating?
Uber is a P2P transport company that allows users to get in touch with drivers through an app in their phones and be picked up and dropped off just as a regular taxi would. No cash is exchanged in the actual transaction as everything is managed through Uber, and the company is the one who actually pays the driver afterwards. To some, it seems like a natural next step in … [Read more...]
Choose Wisely: How To Build A Healthy Startup Team
Xanthomonas axonopodis: a disease affecting citrus trees that can affect the vitality of the entire citrus grove, also known as citrus canker. Have you ever picked up an orange and noticed some discoloration on the peel but decided to eat it anyways? So you eat this orange, but you know you looked at the piece of fruit beforehand and questioned it, even if it was ever so … [Read more...]
Spanish & International Investors: Who is Holding the Cards?
Picture this: Friday night, a casual get together with some mates, a couple of cigars, a couple of drinks, and some chips on the table… You know the deal right? It’s a friendly poker game, with some laughs, some tensions but all in the purpose of having fun and making some money (but gambling is illegal, so lets say we are playing for bragging rights). Typically, since we … [Read more...]
“Right To Forget” Translates Into Extra Work For Google In Europe
The European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) has set in motion a sensitive bill that will make all web browsers, governments, and control agencies around the world take notice. No, it is not Wikileaks all over again. I'm talking about the recent sentence by the ECJ in response to a claim by a Spanish citizen who found old information about him online and asked for it to be … [Read more...]