Corporate Structure
We think highly of lawyers and accountants; please don’t try to do business without good ones. Lawyers like LLCs; accountants like S-Corps; venture firms like Delaware C-Corps; Treetop is agnostic and wants what is best for you. And, we explain why? One size does not fit all - as it relates to corporate structure. We will still hook you up with a lawyer to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, but we can help you understand the merits of each.
Pitch Deck Review
If you are looking for outside capital, you will be presenting to mostly type-A personalities who see literally hundreds of decks a month. Your deck must seize their attention. This is clearly an art and not a science. We can help you put your best foot forward.
Cap Tables
After your first outside capital, your capitalization table is relatively simple and straight forward. However, success obsoletes the initial table pretty quickly and can create long-term challenges. Thus, it is important to contemplate this before you create the first one … or you may get yourself into a situation from which it is difficult to change.
Financial Model Design & Analysis
We have created and now utilize a very complex, multi-layered business modeling tool. We tailor this for each of our client engagements. The primary purpose of our efforts is to help our clients manage their businesses. But, we have built it to also be useful when your firm is attempting to raise capital. VC’s are well versed in financial modeling and it reflects poorly on you and your firm when your model isn’t logical or comprehensive.
Term Sheet Review
Once you have successfully attracted an investor, you will realize that they speak a ‘foreign language’. You will need to make new acronyms and dashboard metrics part of your common deal-dialogue. Arcane concepts such as participation rights, weighted-average dilution, ratchets, liquidation preferences, and more, suddenly get tossed into negotiations. We can help you translate these concepts, prioritize the challenges created by these potential responsibilities, separate the business issues versus the legal issues, and assist your team (including your legal counsel) in drafting your counter arguments and final deal documents. In other words, we will leverage our experience to help you respond to their proposed term sheet, known as their ‘ask’.
Pricing Your Product and/or Service
We think that pricing is one of the most important (and difficult) things for both new businesses and existing businesses with new products/services that are being introduced to the market. It doesn’t mean there is a crisp and proven way to calculate prices for products and services; it means that you need to understand the ‘moving parts’ and how they impact your revenue and your cost structure.
Third-Party Agreements
We will give you a no nonsense, business focused review of your third-party agreements. For example, we have written and reviewed many companies’ distribution and reseller agreements. There are lots of moving parts in these agreements and we find that most folks don’t understand them. This failure to deeply understand the implications can create a situation where a distributor/reseller can hold you and your firm hostage when raising capital or selling the company. Yikes!
Accounting Services
No tax work, please. No auditing, please. The day-to-day G/L, A/R, A/P and Payroll are services that we directly offer. By pushing these to Treetop, you have more time to concentrate on growing your business.
Leases & Space Analysis
We do not help you find it; we know great people who are good at this. And once found, we will help you negotiate the lease and other real estate contract terms. Then, once the space is leased, we will help you figure out how to manage a build-out if you have one.