In his slides for the PSU Lab2Market program, Jon Summers of the law firm White and Lee identifies the following top-10 mistakes from a legal perspective that startups make:
10. Missing 83(b) Election Deadline (what's that?)
9. Selling Stock to Non-accredited Investors (what's an accredited investor?)
8. Forming Entity as S Corp or LLC instead of C Corp (see "Choosing a Business Structure")
7. Failing to Register Stock Option Plan
6. Waiting too long to Form Entity (see "Protect your Intellectual Property")
5. Failing to Vest Founders Stock
4. Bringing in Tainted People
3. Disclosing w/o a Sufficient NDA (see "Protect your Intellectual Property")
2. Missing the Noncompete Window
1. Waiting for Funding to Fix Problems