The Venture Edge

I’m not a lawyer, but I can't count how many times I’ve urged entrepreneurs to settle the ownership issues for their start-ups before the venture starts looking like there might be something there. “No worries,” I’mtold. “We’ve worked together on teams at the university, and we really trust each other.” What a joke! “Get the legal stuff settled early,” I warn them, because it’s more difficult when you’re facing the possibility of funding. Do they listen? Not as often as I’d like. 

It's interesting how life and business works. As a writer, I am often working on a wide variety of projects -- from a biography on the woman who in 1873 planted the two navel orange trees that became a multi-billion-dollar industry in Southern California, to a book on the history of Network Solutions -- the company that during the mid-'80s set the stage for the dot-com explosion -- to a book on two-time America's Cup winner Peter Isler's sailing secrets. Lately, for some reason, the universe's mysterious synchronicities have put me squarely in the middle of the topic of women in business.