If you are unable or unwilling to self-fund your startup you belong to the majority of startups. To develop an idea into a product and a company behind it you will likely need the help of investors ready to fund your project in exchange for equity in the company behind it. In other words, you will need to be able to create and offer equity-based products to investors to raise the funds for your startup.

Offering equity to investors should be considered carefully. All decisions are final and could have long-term implications on company ownership and control. The ability to design and test the impact of your investment products will help you avoid mistakes while allowing you to offer the best possible value to the investors.

Under federal security laws, any offer or sale of a security or security derived product must be either registered with the SEC or in compliance with existing exceptions. Monetryx will help you ensure that your fundraising activity complies with the exceptions provided under Regulation D of the Securities Act when you offer and sell up to $5,000,000 worth of securities within any 12 months.

You can find more information on SEC regulations here.

Even if your company does not have any employees yet, it will be helpful to plan on the equity-based incentives you may offer to your future employees. You might also want to issue equity to all founders, set up incentive programs, and avoid surprises. If you already have employees you will find this feature very helpful in managing their equity-based incentives.

When working with investors and customers it is often necessary to share files and information in a secure way. The secure data room allows you to share files and folders with third parties using trackable and revokable links. Further, through shared folders, you can also share company ownership reports and other company records as available on the Monetryx website in an easy, secure, and manageable way.

As almost any equity-related decision needs to be approved by the Board of Directors, Monetryx offers a set of integrated tools that will allow you to conduct Board Meetings or run express unanimous board decisions on-line. Upon completion of those events, necessary logs are automatically created and made available for inclusion as a reference to any equity-based products designed in the system.

Interaction tools to help your company interact online with various groups (such as investors, employees, guests), present ideas, collect feedback, vote on multiple items, and more.

The Company Highlights feature offers the ability to compose a condensed description of your business that can be used to introduce your company to potential investors.

You can use the Company Highlights to prepare a single double-sided PDF leaflet to share with potential investors. The space in each section is limited to encourage you to keep statements brief and investor-specific. Further, you can use the interface to initiate a conversation with investment clubs, venture clubs, institutional investors, incubators, and accelerators on the Monetryx platform by clicking on the Apply for Funding link.

Your company’s public profile is your way to present your company to potential investors. You could think of it as a way to pitch your company to the broader public.

Your company’s public profile will be made available to a broader audience which will include various investors as well as current or future customers. It is best to be aware of that and approach the task of preparing your company’s public profile with a clear idea of what you would like to share with your target audience. Ideally, you will build a profile that speaks to both customers and investors.

If your company, like many startups, plans to offer employees stock options, you are going to need a 409A valuation of your company. Publicly traded companies can rely on the public stock market to determine the fair market price of the company. Privately held startup companies, on the other hand, cannot, and therefore they need an independent evaluation to determine how much their stock is worth.

The 409A valuation name comes from Section 409A added to the Internal Revenue Code (Code) by section 885 of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004, Public Law 108-357 (118 Stat.1418). Section 409A generally provides that unless certain requirements are met, amounts deferred under a nonqualified deferred compensation plan for all taxable years are currently includible in gross income to the extent not subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture and not previously included in gross income. Read More..