Disqus - Latest Comments for park3

Re: Bizarre Northern California Laws You Never Knew Existed

Jay Parkhill — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:27:41 -0000

I like the SF ordinance that allows homeowners to keep no more than 4 chickens and 1 cow in their backyards

Re: Eddie Rothman is Back, and He’s Pissed

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:47:56 -0000

Got that thanks. I understand his point- that pro surfing squeezes all but a few people out of the crowded lineup. I was just poking fun at his question. He says "how does the ASP work" It's stars, points and money", like ASP officials are supposed answer "it works on the purity of surfing" and the lie detector would go wild. I don't think that's how it works. ;-)

Re: Eddie Rothman is Back, and He’s Pissed

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:24:44 -0000

I didn't follow the lie detector part. What was the question?

Re: Feature Friday: Distributed Identity

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:01:03 -0000

There are a lot of people trying to figure out how to take control of privacy & personal data. A service like this could create a default privacy setting (e.g. don't email me, don't touch my contacts, GPS or phone).

Re: How Much Should I Work?

Jay Parkhill — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 13:32:45 -0000

If you are talking about how much to work *every* day you need to shift this curve about 5-6 hours to the left. I have spent time at almost all points on this curve. You can be productive for 10-12 hours over short periods but if you do that every day the rest of life starts to intrude and you use the time inefficiently.

Don't spend time counting hours in the office. Go to work, get the job done, then get out and think about other things. Easier said than done for young people starting their careers, but you will be a better person and a better employee for it.

Re: Accredited Investor Definition: Operating In the Dark

Jay Parkhill — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:33:38 -0000

California recently changed its 25102(f) form (which takes 15 minutes to file). It *looks* like one of the goals is to collect filing data into a searchable database.
The SEC could start by making Form D as easy to file as that, and then looking at the data they collect.

Re: Again, which kind of crowdfunding?

Jay Parkhill — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 18:59:43 -0000

Followup question: can I offer these things all at the same time, but separately?

Re: Again, which kind of crowdfunding?

Jay Parkhill — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 13:25:57 -0000

A client emailed me yesterday saying they would like to raise $200,000, with an option by the investors after ~1 year to be repaid in (i) product, (ii) cash, or (iii) equity. Investors could include unaccredited friends & family.
The idea won't work as proposed but it's a pretty interesting example of where the market wants to be.

Re: Happy 2014!

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 12:31:22 -0000

One of the reasons I stopped blogging is that the interesting legal stuff comes in waves and I got tired of trying to fill in the quiet periods. You do a good job though. Keep it up!

Re: Indentured celebrity

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 21:53:05 -0000

Neat story. I remember David Bowie selling interests in his future royalty stream (without selling the underlying rights). This seems similar- taking your point about "what happens if he doesn't want to play anymore?"

Re: Five Reasons to Be Your Startup’s Own Lawyer

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:00:06 -0000

I wrestle with these issues as outside counsel all the time. As one client said to me: we used [BIGFIRM], who were very good and detail-oriented, but extremely slow and expensive, then we used [SOLOGUY], who was a bit too loose. Staying in the "careful in every deal with a broad perspective" sweet spot is tricky!

Re: Where To Incorporate

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:34:54 -0000

Yes, true. DE fees are about $1000/year (franchise tax and resident agent). If you need to file Articles quickly in CA it costs $500 in expedited filing fees so most of the savings is gone. Agree with you that CA is lousy for angel/VC-backed companies.

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Jay Parkhill | Parkhill Venture Counsel | Tel. 415 963-4114 | Fax 415 963-4186
Twitter @park3 <http: www.twitter.com="" park3=""> Skype: jparkhill

Re: Where To Incorporate

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:23:28 -0000

I like your perspective. I always figured DE is dominant because public companies have gravitated there, and the thinking has trickled down to startups.

Re: Where To Incorporate

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 15:46:10 -0000

I like this post, Joe. It can be hard to keep good DE and [home state] formation documents up to date. Many attorneys I know rely on one state or the other because it is hard to stay on top of two sets of forms, and hard to tell what is objectively the best for any client. Kudos for making the effort.

CA may technically be a review state but I have never actually seen them review anything. They are just very slow. OTOH I am told New York rejects most filings twice based on substantive review before accepting the filing.

Re: The importance of Twitter being unimportant

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 12:27:42 -0000

Twitter is unfiltered, unthreaded (except in my beta Android app) and the short message length makes it hard to have longer conversations, but it is 100% public and you can save tweets. These things make it a better news feed for me. It is a little more of a work-related forum, but by no means completely.

Facebook is filtered, which I don't like in principle but in practice I don't feel like I miss much. Conversations are threaded and not length-restricted. These things make it much better for back-and-forth conversations. More of my FB friends are people I know offline than on Twitter and it is a little more of a personal forum, but by no means completely.

I don't see one as better than the other. They are different, both do some things well and botch others badly. I am glad both exist.

My usage on each platform also changes every few months as they both evolve.

Re: So much liberty, so little imagination

Jay Parkhill — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 17:51:04 -0000

They should do it. Automatic backup of everything you ever did: email, phone, text, documents, etc. You don't have to change any habits- just keep doing what you've been doing and it's all there!

Re: So much liberty, so little imagination

Jay Parkhill — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 17:41:15 -0000

That's what friends are for. That last sentence was a muddle. Trying again: I pay attention to this stuff because the data analysis tools that let FB and others target ads to people can be used for much more pernicious activities than just serving ads.

Re: So much liberty, so little imagination

Jay Parkhill — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:11:23 -0000

IMO the reason users don't seem to care is sponsored stories are not visible on FB. I use it every day. I see friends' posts and poorly targeted ads. Maybe FB has backed off in practice even if the TOS have not changed.

To be 100% clear- I am pretty much ok with today's dog food. If FB can convince businesses that a casual like makes me more willing to buy a product more power to them. I pay attention to this stuff because personal data tracking/targeting runs deeper than dog food advertising.

Re: Task Management

Jay Parkhill — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 18:24:02 -0000

I like Remember the Milk a lot. It could use improvement, but it's a good place to store reminders of things to follow up on, as well as a priority to-do list every day.

One thing I really like about it is that I can forward an email to RTM and it will convert it to a task. A lot of my work comes to me over email and this makes it easy to get the task onto my to-do list without having to open a new app, copy/paste etc.

Re: Subliminal advertising

Jay Parkhill — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 16:00:31 -0000

That would be cool. I loved your idea to let Flickr users monetize their own content. It's a complicated model when most social network users are passive readers (consumers!) but it's a great thought.

I think you don't like the idea that a paid promotion might not be specifically identified as an ad. To my mind there is tons of that around already (e.g. movie product placements or athlete product sponsorship). Sometimes it works and sometimes it looks ham-handed. I'm sure social network ads (whether or not identified as such) will be the same. Meh.

Re: Subliminal advertising

Jay Parkhill — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 15:00:54 -0000

Sorry, I don't follow. We are all [prospective] consumers while on social media the same as when we read the newspaper. I don't see a difference there.

Re: Subliminal advertising

Jay Parkhill — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:41:41 -0000

That's a pretty interesting pair of quotes. Newspapers sold paper to us on the backs of advertisers "as such", of course. The fact that they can't anymore, and that Facebook et al can't entice us with ads either without disguising them, says more to me about consumers than about print vs digital business models.

Re: 101st Day of Summer

Jay Parkhill — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 10:43:41 -0000

It got to 65 here yesterday. Full on summer in San Francisco

Re: VCs, Protecting Ideas, and NDAs -- the Nextdoor.com Abhyanker Saga Continues

Jay Parkhill — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 15:18:24 -0000

Maybe the viable lesson here is "build at least a prototype, THEN go looking for VC investors".

Re: Best online resources for startup legal docs

Jay Parkhill — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 14:47:10 -0000

There are the NCVA documents. Legalriver.com has a free TOS and Privacy Policy generator, though I always tell prospective clients they are better than no docs, but a far cry from a set customized to the actual business.