Discussion 7 questions make sure to answer all parts of questions detailed

1. Read the Nasdaq article. Select one of the companies and state why you would be willing to invest in the IPO as part of your investment portfolio. Investigate the reasons as to why the company is issuing an IPO at this time given that many analysts believe there could still be a correction in the stock market during the next 12 months.

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/week-ahead-9-ipos-set-to-raise-1-billion-during-the-week-of-november-9-cm540328

1. Types of Legal Entities

Read Exercise #2 on p. 172 of Patterns of Entrepreneurship text. Identify the legal structure and discuss issues involved in starting the business.

Exercise 2: Starting a new health-care service company. In September 2014, Peter, the chief technology officer for a midsize health-care technology company, resigned from his position. He then contacted Jennifer, who was a hospital's director of marketing, in charge of advertising and promotions. Both discussed an idea to start a company that offered health-care providers claim processing services. Peter and Jennifer agreed to start a new company called New Health Claim Processing. This name was important, for it would carry great weight in the industry. Peter and Jennifer had developed a unique business model to process claims at a very low cost while providing a high degree of customer service. The company would lease all the back-end hardware and write the software necessary to operate the business. The company would also provide all implementation, maintenance, and other ongoing support that would be required to use the service.

Peter and Jennifer invited Andy and Grace to join their effort. The four had met in Professor Jack Kaplan's course at Columbia Business School. They were all technologically savvy and had outstanding grades and extensive relevant work experiences. Their credentials would look good for raising capital. This core group of four refined Peter and Jennifer's initial ideas and started drafting a business plan.

As part of the business plan, the group decided that they needed a CEO to attract the venture capital they needed. Before the business plan was complete, they called their friend Michael with a proposition. They promised that they would make it worth his while if he would lead the company as the CEO. Two months later, the business plan was complete. The group of five was very excited as Michael took the lead in seeking funding for the venture. Michael's early contacts were successful. Within weeks of completing the business plan, he had lined up a venture capital firm that expressed interest in the company's plan and the team was invited to present at the next monthly partners' meeting.

During the presentation, the partners became interested in the company's vision, strategy, and the business processes for delivering services to planned customers. However, as the questions delved deeper into the organization and corporate governance structure, Michael became quiet as the partners asked him about the type of company formed and the ownership of the business. A moment of silence occurred when one partner asked who owned the company. Michael had not yet settled how the ownership would be divided.

At the end of the session, one of the venture partners told Michael in frank terms that he had handled the ownership questions poorly. He referred Michael to Cathy, a partner at a local law firm who was a close friend of his. Michael immediately made an appointment with her for the next day.

Cathy was an expert in company organization and stock incentive plans. She began by asking for a retainer fee which Michael paid out of his personal funds. He gave her a brief overview of the situation and arranged to bring all the members of the team in for questioning.

She soon uncovered the following information:

• Jennifer had left her previous company three months ago but did not tell Michael that she was still on retainer. She had also signed a nondisclosure agreement on the day she left.
• Peter had taken his client list and index of all his personal contacts from his previous job. He also took a notebook and articles on health-care products. Peter had received a letter from his previous company stating, “It has come to our attention that you may have in your possession confidential documents belonging to the company.”

Based on the above discussion, what type of legal structure, or type of entity, would you recommend and what formation documents are necessary for that type of entity?

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

Are there additional initial legal contracts you would want in place as you start the business? If so, please identify the type of legal document and state why you deem it to be important.

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

1. Use the Wall Street Journal menu link to find an article related to the following topic: Copyright Infringement

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

Provide a link or reference to your chosen WSJ article and write one paragraph briefly summarizing the key ideas in the article. Then write at least one solid paragraph reflecting on how you might apply your learning from this article to plan for expansion in your current position or in a future professional role.

1. Read Exercise #11.9 on page 297 of the Patterns of Entrepreneurship Management textbook. Consider the company Uber in the context of pursuing an initial public offering (IPO). With the current valuation of $18.2 billion, the most likely way for the initial investors to cash out would be through an IPO. Discuss the pros and cons of both the private equity funding vehicle and a later IPO for the investors.

11.9 Consider Uber in the context of why and when a venture should consider an IPO. Mutual-fund managers Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) led a $1.2 billion round of financing for Uber Technologies Inc. in June 2014. The investment valued the car-hailing company at $18.2 billion, As an investor who puts money into highly valued private companies, such a large valuation raises the bar for the price that they would need to get later to cash out at a substantial profit. At these levels, the most likely way to get an attractive exit would be to go public. Discuss the pros and cons of both the private equity round of Uber and a later public offering for the investors.

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

1. Distill your learning from this course into a succinct list. Use the following questions as your guide:
   1. What do you now understand about New Business Ventures and Entrepreneurship but may want to learn more about?

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

1. What questions can you now articulate about New Business Ventures and Entrepreneurship based on what you have learned in this course?

Response must be 4 paragraphs 6 sentences each not short sentences

1. Read the following and provide feedback 4 paragraphs response

For this week’s investment analysis I picked the education company Instructure based out of Salt Lake City UT. Interestingly enough I am analyzing this canvas learning management system on the very learning management system we use daily in this course, Blackboard. Current CEO Josh Coates has a diverse background in computer science and started developing software technologies since the late 90’s. He has continued to build a brand of successful companies, some previously patent and sold for large profits, once he decided to transition into a new role in the software engineering and operating market. Coats goal in jumping into the IPO market is based on his experience building high tech startups and his eagerness to be independent and public to develop the company’s growth. (Schaffler, 2015).

Instructure relies on its capability to incorporate learning and technology. Like its main competitor Blackboard, their goal is to change the way companies, learning institutions, etc. interact with each other in any learning or communicating environment. Their current four tier product launches of different tools centered on a particular goal they feel cater to a target market includes: Canvas launched in 2011 catered to students and teachers learning platforms, Bridge launched in 2015 catered to employees and overall corporate engagement in results driven processes. Their reaming two products Arc and gauge are landscape management tools Instructure has used to leverage a more impactful user friendly experience (Instructure.com).

From the NASDAQ article the sales backlog including key customers such as Harvard, UPenn, and Telsa make up its 1600 customer and 70% profit margin. The perception that “profitability remains several years out” speaks to the unproven aspect of the corporate learning environment utilizing these products. With a 96% consumer growth rate by year, revenue growing over 44 million from the previous year’s net losses is right behind at around 41 million and project to incur losses in the future reported in its 2015 IPO filings (Schaffler, 2015). Corporations as well as learning institutions are Instructure’s target addressable market. If there isn’t enough value added to these large corporations, Instructure can only rely on Universities including Strayer as a prime example, who already see more value in utilizing Blackboard and its Sass Deployment allowing its users seamless updates, almost zero downtime, and uniformity partnered with continuous innovation. SaaS deployment drives up value in Blackboard from a user interface perspective as well as the buyer’s ability to drive value in producing and scale up for long term growth dealing with big data transformations. The way the market is adjusting to technology IPO’s, an investment in Instructure would only be beneficial if they can draw up the value in its ability to compete against SaaS incorporation into Blackboard Learn with its pricing strategy remaining lower, or tap into that sales backlog of learning institutions and partnership with corporations that can be a test model for its value in cloud based infrastructure demand. Technology IPO’s have reported averaging 20% first day pop this year with a gain of only 2%. One potential saving factor for Instructure is that although Universities are going with the more established and seemingly developed brand Black board, other are still finding value in the discounted rate in comparison to SaaS deployment in Blackboard Learn (Nasdaq.com2015).

1. Read the following and provide feedback 4 paragraphs response

The Square is a little device which is bound to change the world.

You can start accepting payment cards immediately with Square, right from your mobile phone. There are no contracts, monthly fees, and no hidden costs. You can read the credit card payments not only from your phone, but from ALL devices that have an audio input jack. Just plug the Square into the jack, load up the simple-to-use interface, and swipe the card in question.

You can use The Square to pay for things, as well. You can have receipts sent to you immediately via text message or email, or you can access them securely on the website. You can even use a text message to authorize every payment in real-time.

Best of all, Square will donate a penny of every transaction you take in to a charity or cause that you choose. Their motto is “Working together to better the World, one small step at a time”.

The square stock has increased 175 percent in the past year. The only potential hang-up for Square buyers is the stock's sky-high valuation, this could be concerning to potential investors. After the stock's huge gain over the past year, it currently trades at an elevated 24.5 times. Square has many positive long term trends for investors to get hung up on on its steep share price. While the price may be high, as an investor I consider Square's incredible long-term potential and simply pay up for the stock.

Square is a marked leader in integrated payments and has differentiated. Square is a market leader in integrated payments and has differentiated its offerings with superior, simple, accessible and unique solutions. In the near term, all of the company's key metrics indicate it could continue its trend of beating market expectations and raising guidance. The integrated payments business is still in its early stages, Square has made itself a clear market leader in the space.

Even though earnings expectations have risen along with Square's share price in the past year, Square still has room to exceed expectations on volume growth, new product revenue, margins and free cash flow. In addition, he compares Square's potential for international expansion to that of Wall Street darling Netflix (NFLX).

Square is also a serious buyout candidate given its huge growth numbers and relatively modest $16 billion market cap.

The Square company went public in November 2015. This decision was made in order to bring in more money and potentially expand by selling shares of stock and begin trading.

Although the current valuation is challenging, Square is currently confident the beat-and-raise results will continue into 2019 as an accelerating underlying trajectory is complemented by macro stimulus.

Despite the risks the investment is worth it.