All Posts: ‘Lessons Learned’

Lessons Learned In The Trenches Of Two Big NYC Law Firms

by Scott Edward Walker on December 9th, 2009

Introduction

My blog post last week addressed angel financing and included five legal tips for entrepreneurs to help them through the angel financing process.  I had intended to post a part 2 (adding five more tips), but I thought I would try something different to break things up a little.  Accordingly, below is a brief video of three lessons that I learned in the big-firm trenches as a young corporate associate in New York City.

Oddly enough, I actually look back with fondness on those eight years (including all the all-nighters and weekends working on deals) because of the solid training that I received – which I can finally appreciate practicing law out here in California.  Here are the three lessons: (1) do your due diligence; (2) watch-out using forms from other deals or off the web; and (3) create a competitive environment.  This is part one of an ongoing series.  (Note: videos are tricky and can put some people off; thus, I have also included below the substance of the video in written format.)

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Techcrunch Gets It Wrong Re Tweetphoto CEO (Plus, Lessons For Entrepreneurs)

by Scott Edward Walker on November 19th, 2009

Introduction

Yesterday evening, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch posted an interesting piece entitled “TweetPhoto CEO Says Too Much In Interview, Gets Fired. And That’s Just The Beginning…” (which has been subsequently re-posted throughout the blogosphere).  Unfortunately, Arrington has gotten his facts all wrong — at least according to Dan Caulfield, the CEO in question.

Arrington sets forth in his post that Caulfield “apparently said too much in [his podcast] interview [with Frank Peters], disclosing confidential information about partnerships [and] was fired by the company for the transgression.”  In the comments section to the post, however, Caulfield denied that there was any connection between his firing and the interview.  First, yesterday evening, he noted that: “I conducted this interview on [the] Morning of Nov 9th.  It had nothing to do with me leaving the company”; and then, this morning, he added that: “I was terminated a week prior to anyone hearing the interview.  Events not connected.”  Caulfield also retweeted the TechCrunch link to the post yesterday evening with a “Totally false!” insertion. (more…)