Featured Articles

Soul-Searching and Venture Capital: Be Careful What You Wish For

September 07, 2010 19:11

  Last week, I discussed why your chances of getting venture capital (“VC”) financing are probably less than your odds of being struck by lightning twice (click here if you missed it). This week, in the interests of piling on, I’m going to discuss why you probably...

The Immortal Text Message

Eliot Wagonheim
July 26, 2011 12:00

By Guest Blogger: Michael J. Lentz, Esquire The other day, a friend sent me a mass e-mail containing a document that he had run across on the internet and found funny and/or shocking. Like most of us, I get many of these mass-forwards, and I rarely if ever open them. This one, though, was followed...

Why Your Company Won't Get Venture Capital Financing

August 20, 2010 20:09

A few weeks ago, I discussed several different methods of financing a new business or providing for the ongoing capital requirements of an existing business (click here to read the blog). I touched on the difficulties inherent in trying to get bank or venture capital (“VC”)...

No Wine Before Its Time

Eliot Wagonheim
December 23, 2010 02:10

My wife is a product of Oregon.   So is her favorite beer, Bridgeport Coho Pacific Extra Pale Ale. Years ago, when she first made the move to join me in Maryland, I tried to surprise her with a case of Oregon’s finest. Unfortunately, the brewery did not ship product...

Getting Married Before You Date

Eliot Wagonheim
January 10, 2011 18:48

Yesterday at 5:00, I found myself sitting in our conference room across from a very interesting gentleman. He was in his upper fifties, maybe 60, and carried himself as a professional. He explained that he had been in business for upwards of 40 years – that he had made some big...

Recent Articles

Strength at the Broken Places

Eliot Wagonheim
March 20, 2012 12:00

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” So wrote Ernest Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms. I think businesses are like that, too. Scan down the membership list of your trade association or take a moment to look at the businesses passing...

A Short Post about Long Contracts

Eliot Wagonheim
March 13, 2012 15:00

The Employee will receive 10% of net profits realized on all contracts delivered. Final payment will be rendered upon completion of work to the Owner’s satisfaction. Insubordination will be grounds for termination with cause. Just about anyone who has ever managed a business...

The Benefits of a Flashy Thingy

Eliot Wagonheim
March 06, 2012 15:18

  Yesterday, a client asked me for a neuralizer. Of course, he didn’t call it that. (And why can’t they ever use its correct name?) He used the term Will Smith tagged it with in Men in Black – the “flashy thingy.” By either term, it was the...

The Luxury of Long Term Thinking

Eliot Wagonheim
February 28, 2012 17:12

In the early nineteenth century, around 4,000 Quaker families ran 74 Quaker British banks and more than 200 Quaker companies. As Deborah Cadbury writes in her book Chocolate Wars: "For the Quaker capitalists of the nineteenth century, the idea that wealth-creation was for personal gain...

Iron Fist in a Latex Glove

Eliot Wagonheim
February 21, 2012 12:00

By Michael Lentz, Wagonheim Law Attorney As a business lawyer with cerebral palsy who generally uses a wheelchair to get around, I can see both sides of the “reasonable accommodation” for disabilities debate in a way that few people can. I know what it’s like to grip a folder in...