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Startup Intellectual Property & Strategy

  • ​Patent & Trademark Tips – Protecting innovation and brand assets

  • Pitch Preparation Tools – Investor-ready decks and storytelling resources

  • Fundraising Tools – Capital planning, investor tracking, and data rooms

Intellectual Property & Strategy

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​Patent & Trademark Tips

  • The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) offers free information and programs for small business inventors.  Here is a link to a page which contains resources for startups: https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/startup-resources.  This information is not a substitute for legal advice, but it may help clients understand the background principles of IP and frame their questions.

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  • A Low Cost Option is  Provisional Application:​​​​

A provisional patent application is a one year place holder for the non-provisional patent application, is not examined, expires within a year, and can not become a patent unless a non-provisional patent application is later filed.  A provisional patent application has few formal requirements beyond a cover sheet.  When considering a provisional patent application, an important aspect is if the inventor plans to eventually file outside the US.  When an inventor wants to eventually file outside the US, I recommend writing the provisional as it was a non-provisional except adding a few very broad claims.  The US is very forgiving to inventors starting off themselves and then hiring a patent practitioner (i.e., patent attorney or agent).  In general, the rest of the world is not as forgiving.      The patent office has 3 tiers of fees: un-discounted, small entity, and micro entity.  All the small companies/independent inventors I’ve worked with are either small entity or micro entity.  Micro entity has a lot of requirements but the main ones are that the inventor has filed less than 4 patents on their own and has a household income of less that 2x medium income.  A provisional patent application is currently $150 for small entity and $75 for micro entity in patent office fees.  A non-provisional patent application is  $910 for small entity and $455 for micro entity for patent office fees.  The non-prov fees cover the init filing and one amendment that is examined.  If allowable, there is an issue fee.  If not-allowable, then can pay more money to have the USPTO continue to examine the application.  Note these are USPTO fees and not professional fees (e.g., attorney/agent/paralegal fees). There are two important aspects if an inventor does do-it-yourself.  First, the legal threshold for a patent application is to teach a person of skill in the art how to make and use the invention without undue experimentation.  Art is an old legal word that basically means technology.  A person is skill in the art is a person with the baseline skill in the industry the invention is in.  For example, person in skill in the art for a web app could be a person with a computer science bachelors degree.  The undue experimentation applies to the unpredictable arts like pharma.   For high tech areas like hardware and software, they are predictable and the undue experimentation generally does not apply.  Second important aspect is to not say anything that will hurt the patent.

 

Pitch Preparation Tools

  • Power to Pitch—Kat Weaver 

    • A free tool to help founders unpack how much they actually need and what kinds of capital sources best align with their goals.​

    • New 3 Minute Fundraising Trainings - Short, tactical breakdown videos to sharpen a story, deck, and investor conversations.​

    • AI Kat Stack for HubSpot - Our curated bundle of top AI tools founders can claim or you can share with your portfolio​.

 

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  • ​Cardinal Mistakes we have seen

  1. Investors are not your customers. They might buy into your product, but they’re not necessarily customers for the product itself. Still, we can’t tell you how many times we’ve vetted decks that are more product sales/marketing leave-behinds than a business plan for your company.

  2. Keep the product slide simple and put your focus on the business itself and how and why it will bring investors a sizeable exit.

  3. Problem slide: “(Insert vertical you’re addressing here) is broken.” Do you know how many times investors/analysts have seen that line? It’s a rooky mistake and sets the stage for you being a rooky. Investors spend a few minutes assessing a deck – if you’re lucky – and you’ve just wasted major important seconds. Be specific about what that major problem you’re addressing is and on the next slide, your solution for addressing it.

 

  • According to Guy Kawasaki’s Pitch Deck Template​​​​

There’s a 10/20/30 rule: Ten slides, 20 minutes, 30-point type... 1.) Problem 2.) Your solution 3.) Business model 4.) Underlying magic/technology 5.) Marketing and sales/Go-to-market strategy 6.) Competition 7.) Team 8.) Projections and milestones 9.) Status and timeline 10.) Summary and call to action 11.) You need to include the ask: how much are you raising and for what? Most founders include the use of funds here. According to Ackerman, investors want to know what that funding is going to buy them. How is it going to bring the company closer to profitability and how much longer will that take? Ideally, the funding will last you 18 months and will get you to (provide info here). You don’t want to raise too little – investors want you to focus on building the company, not constantly chasing money. And don’t raise too much, either: the last thing anyone wants is a down round as a follow-on.

​Fundraising Tools 

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  • Flowlie streamlines the fundraising process for busy founders who want to focus on growth and product. They are neither a marketplace, nor a broker, but an end-to-end fundraising management platform with built-in automations.

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  • Venture Capital Fund Metrics Cheat Sheet

1. Total Value to Paid-in (TVPI) - Measures the total value of a fund relative to the capital paid in by LPs. • Formula: (Investment Proceeds + Book Value) / Paid-in Capital • Gross TVPI: Includes investment proceeds and book value. • Net TVPI: Adjusts for fees, expenses, and carry. 2. Residual Value to Paid-in (RVPI)- • Indicates the remaining value in a fund, showing unrealized gains. • Formula: Book Value/ Paid-in Capital • Useful for assessing a fund's potential during early and mid- life stages. 3. Distributions to Paid-in (DPI) - Measures the proportion of capital returned to LPs. • Formula: Distributed Capital/ Paid-in Capital • A high DPI is preferred as it shows strong liquidity. 4. Multiple on Invested Capital (MOIC)- Compares the total book value (realized+ unrealized) to investment cost. • Formula: Book Value/ Investment Cost • Helps evaluate a GP's investment selection ability. 5. Internal Rate of Return (IRR) - Represents the annualized return on investments. • Gross IRR: Excludes fees and carry. • Net IRR: Adjusts for fees, carried interest, and fund expenses. 6. Maximum Expected Exposure (MEE) - Shows the LP's actual cash commitment relative to total capital commitment. • Formula: Capital Commitment - Distributed Capital (within drawdown period) • Helps LPs manage capital call expectations. 7. Follow-on Funding Rate (FFR) - Percentage of portfolio companies securing follow-on funding. • High FFR suggests strong portfolio quality and attractiveness. 8. Deployment to Fee Ratio (DFR) - Measures how much capital is invested vs. spent on fees. • Formula: (Paid-in Capital - Fund Fees) / Paid-in Capital • Higher DFR means more capital is working in investments

  • ​​​​​​​​​Earnd--helps its clients recycle their R&D investment dollars into new capital for further growth by putting money back in their pocket from R&D tax credits they have earned. Earnd works with clients who are investing in the development of new or software, products, formulas, inventions or technical processes

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  • This Startup Growth Calculator tool calculates how much funding your startup needs :  https://growth.tlb.org/

 

  • How much equity to give up per round—Median as of 2025: 

  • Seed 20.5%

  • Series A 19.5%

  • Series B 17.2%

 

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  • Wefunder Feedback from a Client:  ​​​​​​​

"Long story short: you need to have $500K in committed capital before launch to stand a chance of it being successful. Those types of platforms are all about clout in a weird way, and a lot of commitments early on are the key.  In addition, you need a pretty decent marketing budget for it to work.  Most of the successful ones are spending a lot of money on ads, looking for a 2x+ ROI so that they can justify the spend. We're talking thousands per week to attract enough eyeballs that can convert. The most successful ones also have a PR plan lined up so that they have announcements every week, because you're messaging to folks who express interest throughout the process and trying to convert them. That's another few thousand. "

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  • Benchmarks for Raising Venture Capital - Information from the Founder's Institute

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  • Checklist Before Raising:​​

You should check MOST of these boxes before raising
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