What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High-Tech Business Venture / Eric Koester

Written by an experienced business lawyer in the technology, scientific and engineering community, this publication is for the engineer with an innovative high-tech idea or concept who needs those crucial business insights and strategies to move that idea forward. It offers key analysis on how to leave a current employer, gain access to technologies and potential talent, and considers other issues that can reduce problems down the road. It even includes a step-by-step guide for accessing and protecting intellectual property at the earliest stages.

To assist in the fundraising process, this resource explores all the available options to capitalize a business – from self-funding, to bootstrapping, to angel investors, to venture capital to government grants, to bank loans, to joint ventures. It also looks at the best ways to form a company so as to take advantage of various tax and business strategies, discusses compensation of employees with stock options or restricted stock plans, explains how an emerging company can expand internationally, and covers some key exit strategies such as an IPO or a merger/acquisition. It covers most everything a new technology business will face including hiring, firing, contracts, leases, loans, and product warranties.

As you read, you will find this book is full of the stuff that engineers love: statistics, data, tools, spreadsheets, and research. But it also full of the anecdotal evidence and practical advice needed to stay the course. Now is a tremendous time for entrepreneurship. Although there have been periodic slowdowns in the economy, if you believe in a future, high-tech is the future in which to believe.

This book is part of the Taylor & Francis/CRC Press series "What Every Engineer Should Know About… . Like the other books in the series, it is designed to provide you with important knowledge that will help you along your career path. This one will also help you make that path your own.