Key types for insurance and top tips for getting your claim paid

And what better way to prepare yourselves for this long awaited VC fundraising 180° than by attending the next session of Bootlaw on Wednesday 16th May 2012, where the topic for discussion will be Fundraising in Europe – How the rules are changing – and how to make the best of it! with our special guest speaker who will be treading the Bootlaw boards, Jean-Michel Deligny, the managing director of Go4Venture.

Jean-Michel Deligny is a 20 year veteran of European tech investment banking, having worked in the early 1990s at Broadview International, the technology and media focused M&A advisory firm (now part of Jeffries), and then as European Head of tech corporate finance with UBS until the internet bubble explosion.

Ten years ago Jean-Michel started Go4Venture which he has established as one of the most respected advisers to European emerging tech companies.

During this session, Jean-Michel will share with us his insights into the changing landcape of European venture financing.

BOOTLAW MEMBERS CAN SIGN UP HERE for the next exciting instalment of Bootlaw!

The format of the evening will be, as usual:

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking

7pm – Legal bit starts.

8pm – Legal bit ends; more beer, pizza and networking.

9pm – End; head to the pub (White Horse, Exchange Square)

Remember, Google Maps and the map on Meetup.com DO NOT point at our office accurately as there is a glitch with the postcode database, so please use this map if visiting us for the first time: http://www.pinsentmasons.com/pdf/CrownPlaceMap.pdf 

Mike is the CEO of Floor 64 and the Editor for Techdirt, a popular technology blog, commenting on news stories about government policy, technology and legal issues affecting innovation and growth in the technology sphere.

We feel this is one event not to be missed!

For further details visit http://coadec-theskyisrising.eventbrite.co.uk/

Setting up new companies, negotiating contracts, getting investment – rarely do these come cheaply and we want to help with a total first to third place prize-winning pot made up of £12,000 worth of free legal advice.

We are more than aware of the bad rep that lawyers can get when it comes to their bills and this year’s Bootlaw Competition seeks to go some way to change that when it comes to cutting your overheads.

First prize is £7,000 worth of legal fees, second prize is £3,000 worth of legal fees and third prize is £2,000 worth of legal fees.

All that is required for entry is a two page business plan. The plan will be judged on the innovation and novelty of the business model, the size of the potential market, the skill set of the management team, the potential for protection of any intellectual property rights, future financial performance and the use of any venture capital funding.

Click here for the full terms and conditions of entry and get writing!

Bootlaw, the original and the best…

 If there is anything in particular that you’d like us to cover, please do let us know when you RSVP.  Remember, we are always open to questions on the night.  You have to admit that, with the long summer nights approaching, there’s nothing better than free beer, pizza, networking and a nice bit of medium rare Angus…

BOOTLAW MEMBERS CAN SIGN UP HERE

The format of the evening will be, as usual:

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking

7pm – Legal bit starts.

8pm – Legal bit ends; more beer, pizza and networking.

9pm – End; head to the pub (White Horse, Exchange Square)

Remember, Google Maps and the map on Meetup.com DO NOT point at our office accurately as there is a glitch with the postcode database, so please use this map if visiting us for the first time: http://www.pinsentmasons.com/pdf/CrownPlaceMap.pdf 

Nearly four years ago Barry Vitou and I decided to start our own event so that we could share our knowledge of law and enthusiasm for tech start ups. Set up over the course of a couple of days and then launched at a Friday night Minibar event, Bootlaw quickly defied our expectations: from the regularly “sold out” events to becoming known on the London tech circuit as those “Bootlaw guys”. More recent highlights have included being dubbed a “legal skunkworks” in the Wall Street Journal and having a Bootlaw event televised on BBC News 24. Less visible to you, but importantly for us, the underlying legal practice has gone from strength to strength, with new clients contacting us every week and long standing clients going to do great things. In 2008 we were in no doubt that UK web scene had a bright future – it took few more years for some people to cotton on – and it has been a privilege to have played a small part in its development.

It is then with mixed emotions that I will be saying goodbye to Bootlaw at our next event, on 28th March. Last month I resigned my position as a senior associate at Pinsent Masons, our home for the past 13 months, and in a few weeks I am joining Privax Limited as its first COO.

I do hope as many of you as possible will be able to come along on the 28th to share a beer and a slice of pizza with me one last time.

Bootlaw’s future

Bootlaw is carrying on and Pinsent Masons are committed to build on the work we’ve done in this space and keep supporting the London tech sector. Jon Snade, who presented with me last September on the Seed Summit Term Sheet and who is a senior associate in Pinsent’s corporate team, will be in charge of Bootlaw, and will also be the principle point of contact for any start up requiring legal assistance. Jon will be ably assisted by the rest of Team Bootlaw, many of whom will be familiar to those of you who have attended in the last year, such as James Sweeting (IP), Steve Keall (Litigation) and James Paton-Philip (Corporate). All their details can be found on the Bootlaw website. My co-founder, Barry, is sticking around (as chairman emeritus), and will be keeping an eye on things.

For my part, I am confident that Bootlaw will continue to flourish under new leadership and play its part in the rich and varied tech start up scene in London. I hope you will all continue to support it with the same enthusiasm you have shown to date.

What is Privax?

Privax Limited is the company behind www.hidemyass.com the number one IP proxy service on the internet, with over 8 million unique visitors each month and tens of thousands of subscribers to its paid for HMA! Pro VPN service, which has 231 VPN servers in 42 countries. HideMyAss! was set up 6 years ago, by its founder Jack Cator, who has invited me to assist him consolidate and grow on his considerable success to date.  My move has been reported here.

Privax is in the process of setting up an office in central London and if you’ve always wanted to work with me, now is your chance, as there are a couple of vacancies: for a senior developer and a digital marketing person.

So I am afraid to say that Privax is no start-up, but that does not mean I’ll be abandoning the start-up world. I’ll still be going to meetups, events and conferences – I’ve got plenty to learn about all sorts of things, although I have no intention of learning any coding (sensible, since I kept breaking our WordPress site until the nice chaps at Howard Baines took away my admin privileges). I’ll also be on the lookout for new products and services which we can use at Privax – as well as opportunities for partnership and development.

Please keep in touch – my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts will remain the same, and I may even revitalise my personal blog at some point.

I hope to see many of you on 28th March – if you can’t make it that night, don’t forget there is a Music Techpitch4.5 event on 27th March at EMI Music’s HQ in Kensington, hosted by yours truly.  Five Bootlaw members can attend for free using the code “BLAWCOMP” and the rest of you can get a 50% discount using “BOOTLAW”.

All the best

Danvers

Tax specialists Matt Rowbotham and Conor Brindley will take you (gently) through EIS and SEIS and will be answering questions such as: What are these schemes? Why do they matter? How valuable are they? How can you benefit from them? And crucially, what the hell does EIS stand for anyway?

Since Matt and Conor have an encyclopedic knowledge of thousands of pages of company tax legislation, they will also endeavour to answer any other taxing questions you may have. An unmissable opportunity awaits you.

Bootlaw members can sign up here

About our speakers:

Matt and Conor are both senior associates at Pinsent Masons LLP. Between them they specialise in a mixed bag of corporate tax, management incentives and tax disputes. They have advised a wide variety of clients on how to structure all sorts of investments and transactions
An occasionally frustrated weekend artist, Matt (on the right) can bring an eye for design to even the most humdrum of spreadsheets or tax reports (a skill which he feels is sadly underappreciated), and has astonishing snowman building skills. Conor (on the left) is a father of two young children, and thrives on industrial quantities of caffeine and sugar (delivered through coffee and earl grey tea respectively). Matt can be found on twitter (usually talking trivialities rather than tax), and you can follow him and his snowmen @epicurus101, whereas Conor refuses to own a television and so probably won’t be found on twitter anytime soon, leaving him more time to study the intricacies of tax law.

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The format of the evening will be, as usual:

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking

7pm – Legal bit starts.

8pm – Legal bit ends; more beer, pizza and networking.

9pm – End; head to the pub (White Horse, Exchange Square)

Remember, Google Maps and the map on Meetup.com DO NOT point at our office accurately as there is a glitch with the postcode database, so please use this map if visiting us for the first time: http://www.pinsentmasons.com/pdf/CrownPlaceMap.pdf 

UPDATE: here are the slides as requested

 EIS and SEIS

Bootlaw members can sign up for this event here.

[please note that this event will be held on the 15th Floor of our office, and NOT in the auditorium on the ground floor]

About Steve

Steve Keall is a Senior Associate in Pinsent Masons’ Litigation and Arbitration team in its London office. He has a varied commercial litigation practice, including breach of contract claims, shareholder disputes and advice in connection with financial services. Additionally, he is involved in insurance disputes, with a focus on general insurance and protection claims. As well as this disputes work, he advises in the gambling sector from a contentious and non-contentious perspective. You can follow Steve on Twitter: @stevekeall

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The format of the evening will be, as usual:

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking

7pm – Legal bit starts.

8pm – Legal bit ends; more beer, pizza and networking.

9pm – End; head to the pub (White Horse, Exchange Square)

Remember, Google Maps and the map on Meetup.com DO NOT point at our office accurately as there is a glitch with the postcode database, so please use this map if visiting us for the first time: http://www.pinsentmasons.com/pdf/CrownPlaceMap.pdf 

IP dispute specialist (and Bootlaw co-organiser) James Sweeting will be looking at the practical aspects of bringing and defending a domain name dispute.  As part of Pinsent Masons’ team working for Interflora on its ground breaking dispute with Marks and Spencer (see the press release here), James will give an update on the latest state of the law on bidding on trade marks for Google AdWords. All this plus other great practical insights and examples of branding and trade mark issues arising from their online use and abuse.

Bootlaw members can sign up here

James is a solicitor at Pinsent Masons LLP. He specialises in Intellectual Property law, particularly IP disputes.

A former barman and lifeguard, James is experienced at handing out friendly advice and then performing a dramatic rescue when the client ends up in deep water (having ignored earlier advice)… He now advises online businesses on all kinds of IP-related issues.  These range from cybersquatting and AdWord disputes to domain name disputes, trade mark infringements and copyright issues.  He works with clients in pre-action stages of disputes and has worked on cases which have gone all the way to the Court of Appeal.  He has also lectured widely about the commercial benefits and legal risks of businesses engaging with social media.It took James about a year to convince himself of the value of Twitter, but he has now does so and you can follow him @james_sweeting and through his LinkedIn page.

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The format of the evening will be, as usual:

6.30pm – Doors open, beer and networking

7pm – Legal bit starts.

8pm – Legal bit ends; more beer, pizza and networking.

For “Best Business or Enterprise Startup” we’re pleased to see Damian Kimmelman’s Duedil make the cut.  We’ve also got an interest in the innovative financing platform, MarketInvoice - as Danvers is a member of its advisory board.  Also in this category is the fantastically successful Shutl, founded by startup veteran Tom Allason and TicketTailor, which impressed the judges at the last Techpitch4.5 event.

“Best Advertising or Marketing Tech Startup” features Adavengers, set up by Bootlaw member Farhan Lalji and Conversocial, the Facebook management tool created by Joshua March, one of our early supporters.

For “Best European Startup Accelerator” we’re definitely biased in favour of Bizspark, as we were the first lawyers in the UK to sign up as Network Partners and have enjoyed several excellent Bizspark conferences – but hot on its heels is the fantastic Springboard programme, which we’re also pleased to support – and visited in Cambridge earlier this year.

In the category “Best Startup Tool For Startups“, we’re massive fans of the guys at GoSquared – who apart from making us feel ridiculously old, are doing great things at White Bear Yard, developing their awesome tool for live stats. But we can’t omit to mention Playnice.ly, the bug tracking tool founded by Bootlaw regulars Rob Hudson and Bash Khan.

For “Best Entertainment, Audio, Video, Music Startup” we’ve only got one pick – MusicMetric – who we’ve represented for many years through several funding rounds.

Conversocial makes another appearance in “Best Social Platform or Networking Startup” but our loyalities in this category belong to Nick Halstead’s Datasift, which has been having a massively successful year, raising a $6m VC round in the US. 

Marketinvoice and Shutl reappear in “Best Commerce, Finance or Payments Startup” and are joined by Nadim Saad and Mark Peatey’s FinanceACar.

“Best VC of the Year 2011” has a long list of entries, and we’ve sat across the table from many of them. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for Sean and Rogan at Profounders Capital - who have invested in our clients Keynoir and Citysocialising.

We’re not entirely sure how Bookingbug counts itself as a “Sport, Leisure or Health Startup” (although it does provide an excellent booking solution to businesses in those fields), but we’ll be cheering for Glenn Shoosmith and his team on the night anyway.

For “Best Culture (Fashion, Art etc) Startup“, our loyalties are divided between several Bootlaw regulars and friends, with EDITD, Girl Meets Dress and WIWT.com all up in this hotly contested category.

And finally, “The Europas Hero Award – Kicking Ass Globally From Europe” – here the competition looks fierce. Again, Datasift makes a well-deserved appearence but we are sure that Ali and Andy from Huddle will make a strong showing as well. We’re avid users of both Zopa and Moshi Monsters (well, our children love the monsters), but we remain very excited for the prospects of Tradeshift, which has just raised a massive $17m from Russian investors.

We’ll be there on 17 November – and hope to see many Bootlaw regulars enjoying the party, as well as picking up some prizes. Best of luck to all!

(and apologies to any Bootlawyers whose company we’ve inadvertently omitted)